••    •      •        /  , 


IS 


IRLF 


B    3    125    73b 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


ametfcatt  iftien  of 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS 


American  a?cn  of  Eettotf 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS 


BY 

EDWARD  GARY 


BOSTON    AND   NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1894, 
Br  EDWARD  CAR?, 

Ail  rights  reserved. 


PS 


TO 

MRS.  FRANCIS    GEORGE    SHAW 

THIS  LIFE  OF  OUR  DEAR  FRIEND 
IS     WITH    RESPECT    AND    AFFECTION 

DEDICATED 
BY  THE  AUTHOR 


213360 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

CHAPTER  L 


FAMILY  AND  YOUTH 


CHAPTER  II. 
EMERSON  AND  BROOK  FARM .15 

CHAPTER  IIL 
EUROPEAN  TRAVEL 39 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  LITERARY  FIELD .    52 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  HOWADJI  BOOKS „    .    .    59 

CHAPTER  VI. 
LECTURER  AND  MAGAZINE  WRITER 74 

CHAPTER  VII. 
"  THE  POTIPHAR  PAPERS  ;  "  "  PRUE  AND  I " 91 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
BUSINESS  EXPERIENCES 104 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1856 109 

CHAPTER  X. 
A  NOVEL  AND  A  LECTURE 118 


VU1  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XL 
THE  EVE  OF  THE  WAR  .....    e    ...    5    ...  130 

CHAPTER  XII. 
IN  THE  MIDST  OF  WAR 146 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
EDITOR  OF  "HARPER'S  WEEKLY" 168 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  END  OF  THE  WAR 183 

CHAPTER  XV. 
FOUR  YEARS  OF  POLITICS 194 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  REFORM  COMMISSION 216 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  GREELEY  CANVASS  . 227 

• 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
THE  REACTION  — 1874  TO  1876 239 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
THE  PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 253 

CHAPTER  XX. 
POLITICAL  INDEPENDENCE 262 

CHAPTER  XXL 
THE  CANVASS  OF  1884 279 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
THE  LEADER  OF  REFORM 294 


CONTENTS.  IX 


CHAPTER  XXHI. 
THE  TYPICAL  INDEPENDENT 308 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
CHANCELLOR  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 317 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
CONCLUSION 322 

NOTE.  The  portrait  of  Mr.  CURTIS  which  forms  the  frontis 
piece  of  this  volume  is  reproduced  by  permission  from  a  photo 
graph  made  by  the  F.  GUTEKUNST  Co.,  of  Philadelphia. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FAMILY   AND   YOUTH. 

THE  "  Elizabeth  and  Ann  "  sailed  from  the  port 
of  London  on  the  6th  of  May,  1635,  for  New 
England.  In  Hotten's  "  List  of  Emigrants  to 
America"1  the  names  and  ages  of  her  seven 
"passingers  "  are  given,  and  it  is  stated  that  they 
"brought  certificates  from  the  Ministers  where 
their  abodes  were,  and  from  the  Justices  of  Peace, 
of  their  conformitie  to  the  orders  and  discipline 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  y*  they  are  no  sub 
sidy  men."  It  is  added  that  they  had  taken  the 
oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy.  Of  these 
names  the  last  is  that  of  Henry  Curtis,  and  his  age 
is  given  as  twenty-seven.  This  was  the  founder  of 

1  "  (Regi)ster  of  the  names  of   all   ye  Passingers  wch  Passed 
from  ye  Port  of  London  for  on  whole  year  Endinge  X  mas  1635. 

6  May  1635. 

Theis  under-written  names  are  to  be  transported  to  New  Eng 
land,  imbarqued  in  the  Elizabeth  and  Ann,  Roger  Coop  (Cooper) 
Mr.  the  p-ties  have  brought  Cert :  from  the  Ministers  where  their 
abodes  were  and  from  the  Justices  of  Peace  of  their  conformitie 
to  the  orders  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England  and  yt  they 
are  no  subsidy  men.  They  have  taken  the  oaths  of  alleg :  and 
Suprem :  " 


2  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

the  family  l  of  which  George  William  Curtis  was  a 
descendant  in  the  sixth  generation.  Henry  Curtis  2 
settled  at  Watertown,  in  Massachusetts,  having  had 
five  "  lots  "  granted  to  him,  and  having  bought  two. 
Later  he  removed  to  Sudbury,  where  his  eldest 
son,  Ephraim,  was  born  in  1642,  he  having  mar 
ried  Mary  Guy,  the  daughter  of  Nicholas  Guy,  a 
carpenter  who  had  emigrated  from  Upton  Gray, 
near  Southampton,  England.  Ephraim  appears 
in  the  colonial  history  of  his  time  as  a  man  of  en 
ergy,  courage,  and  a  strong  will.  In  1675,  when 
he  was  thirty-three  years  old,  it  is  recorded  oi 
him  that,  because  he  was  "  noted  for  his  intimate 

1  The  genealogy  of  Mr.  Curtis,  as  traced  by  his  son,  is   as 
follows :  — 

CURTIS.  BURRILL. 

Henry-Mary  Guy  George 

1608-1678  1630-1683 

Ephraim  John-Lois  Ivory 

1642-1734  1651-1703 

John-Rebekah  Waite  Ebenezer-Martha  Farrington 

1707-1797  1676-1761 

John-Elizabeth  Hayward  Ebenezer-Mary  Mansfield 

1731-1768  1701-1778 

David-Susanna  Stone  James-Elizabeth  Rawson 

1763-1813  1743-1825 

George-Mary  Elizabeth  Burrill     James-Sally  Arnold 
17W-1856  1772-1820 

George  William  Mary  Elizabeth 

1824-1892  1798-1826 

2  James  Savage,  in  his  Genealogical  Dictionary  of  the  First  Set 
tlers  of  New  England,  showing    Three  Generations,  notes  (vol.  i. 
p.  485) :  "  Curtis,   Henry,  Watertown   1636,  an  orig.   propr.   of 
Sudbury,  m.  Mary,  d.  of  Nicholas  Guy,  had  Ephraim,  b.  31  Mar., 
1643;  John,  1644  ;    &  Joseph,  1647;  nam.  in  their  gr.mo's  will 
1666  ;  &  d.  8  May  1678." 


FAMILY  AND    YOUTH.  3 

knowledge  of  the  country,  his  quickness  of  compre 
hension  and  cool  courage,  and  his  large  acquaint 
ance  with  the  Indians,  whose  language  he  spoke  flu 
ently,"  the  court  sent  him  as  an  interpreter  with 
an  embassy  which  started  from  Cambridge,  July 
28,  with  an  escort  of  twenty  men  under  Captains 
Edward  Hutchinson  and  Thomas  Wheeler.  On 
the  2d  of  August  they  were  attacked  from  am 
bush.  Eight  of  the  little  force  were  killed  and 
five  were  wounded.  The  remainder  took  refuge 
in  a  house  in  Brookfield,  and  Ephraim  Curtis, 
with  a  companion,  was  sent  toward  the  nearest 
post  to  report  their  plight  and  secure  relief.  He 
returned  before  leaving  the  town,  having  learned 
that  the  Indians  were  in  force  and  intended  a 
night  attack.  A  second  time  he  "  readily  as 
sented  to  adventure  forth  again  on  that  service  '* 
alone,  his  companion  having  been  killed  meanwhile. 
Again  he  was  forced  to  return.  "  But  towards 
morning,"  says  Captain  Wheeler,  "  said  Ephraim 
adventured  forth  for  the  third  time,  and  was  fain 
to  creep  on  his  hands  and  knees  for  some  space 
of  ground,'  that  he  might  not  be  discerned  by  the 
enemy.  But  by  God's  mercy,  he  escaped  their 
hands  and  got  safely  to  Marlborough,  tho'  very 
much  spent  and  ready  to  faint  by  reason  of 
want  of  sleep  before  he  left  us,  and  his  sore 
travel  night  and  day  in  the  hot  season  till  he  got 
thither."  For  his  gallant  services  in  this  year  he 
was  made  a  lieutenant,  accredited  as  in  the  "  direct 
service  "  of  the  council,  paid  the  sum  of  "  2XS" 


4  '    GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

and  given  the  right  to  gather  the  corn  of  "our 
enemies,  the  Indians  that  are  fled."  Later  in  the 
year  the  English  were  withdrawn  from  Worcester, 
the  place  was  burned,  and  Lieutenant  Curtis  re 
turned  to  Sudbury. 

He  had  been  the  first  settler  of  Worcester. 
Indeed,  he  was  so  emphatically  the  first,  and  was 
so  solidly  settled,  that  when  a  committee  of  the 
General  Court  visited  the  place  to  lay  out  a  town 
there,  they  found  Ephraim  Curtis  established,  and 
so  resolved  to  assert  his  rights  that  it  took  ex 
tended  legal  proceedings,  all  of  which  are  recorded 
in  the  quaint  language  of  the  time,  to  dislodge  him. 
Nor  was  this  finally  accomplished  until  there  had 
been  made  over  to  him  other  lands,  which  seem,  by 
the  description  of  them,  to  have  been  compensation 
in  ample  measure  for  those  which  his  enterprise 
had  laid  hold  upon.  I  have  said  this  much  of  the 
life  of  Ephraim  Curtis,  because  he  is  the  only  one 
of  the  earliest  members  of  the  family  of  whom 
there  is  a  clear  record,  and  because  it  makes  plain 
the  nature  of  the  stock  from  which  George  Wil 
liam  Curtis  was  derived.  It  was  not  the  usual 
Puritan  or  Pilgrim  type,  but  apparently  that  of 
the  smaller  gentry  of  England,  whose  "  conformitie 
to  the  orders  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land  "  was  duly  acknowledged,  and  who  were  "  no 
subsidy  men."  The  men  of  this  class  had  inde 
pendence  and  self-reliance  in  plenty  ;  were  full  of 
resource,  quick  of  wit,  eager  to  seize  every  oppor 
tunity  ;  resolute,  even  daring ;  faithful  to  duty,  — 


FAMILY  AND    YOUTH.  5 

good  as  friends,  formidable  as  foes.  It  was  a  good 
stock.  In  the  life  of  George  William  Curtis  some 
of  these  qualities  will  reappear  ;  and  if  they  are  not 
generally  associated  with  his  name  by  his  contem 
poraries,  it  is  because  in  part  they  were  rendered 
less  prominent  by  the  radiance  of  gentler  and  rarer 
qualities ;  but,  as  will  I  hope  be  seen,  the  better  of 
them  were  not  absent,  and  in  the  phrase  of  the 
physiologist  "  persisted,"  and  were  very  strong. 

One  other  figure  in  the  Curtis  family  attracts 
attention,  —  that  of  John  Curtis,  the  eldest  son  of 
Ephraim.  He  was  born  (1707)  in  Worcester,  and 
up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  was  an  active 
and  noted  citizen,  —  selectman,  surveyor  of  the 
highways,  captain  in  the  French  and  Indian  War. 
He  was  also  a  tavern-keeper  and  a  leading  member 
of  the  church,  and  his  house  was  much  frequented 
by  the  clergymen  of  the  day.  But  he  was  a  sturdy 
and  open  loyalist.  In  1774  he  signed  a  protest 
against  what  he  regarded  as  the  revolutionary  action 
of  the  town,  whereupon  the  town,  premising  that  he 
was  one  of  those  on  whom  it  had  "  Conferred  many 
favours  and  Consequently  might  expect  their  Kind 
est  and  best  Services,"  resolved  that  he  and  his  fel 
low-signers  be  "  Deemed  unworthy  of  holding  any 
Town  office  of  Profit  or  Honour  until  they  have 
made  satisfaction  for  this  offence  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  town  which  ought  to  be  made  as  public  as 
their  Protest  was."  He  declined  at  this  time  to 
make  any  retraction,  and  in  the  next  year  he  was 
declared  a  public  enemy,  disarmed,  and  forbidden 


6  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

to  leave  the  town.  But  in  1777  he  seems  to  have 
made  his  peace,  as  it  was  voted  to  receive  him  and 
others  "  into  the  Town's  favour,  and  that  further 
prosecution  against  them  as  enemies  of  the  United 
States  of  America  shall  cease,  they  paying  the 
costs  that  has  arisen  already  by  means  of  their 
being  prosecuted  as  Enemies  to  the  United  States, 
agreeable  to  their  petition."  Here  was  a  strain  of 
practical  independence  in  the  Curtis  blood  not  in 
consistent  with  a  disposition  to  make  the  best  of 
facts  that  could  not  be  changed. 

The  great -grand  son  of  this  John  Curtis  was 
George  Curtis,  the  father  of  George  William.  He 
was  born  in  Worcester  in  1796,  but  removed  to 
Providence,  R.  I.  There  he  married  Mary  Eliza 
beth  Burrill,  daughter  of  James  Burrill,  Jr.,  who 
was  Chief  Justice  of  Rhode  Island,  and  at  one  time 
a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate  from  that 
State,  an  opponent  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
and  a  man  of  marked  ability  and  high  character. 
Of  this  marriage  were  born  James  Burrill  Curtis, 
in  1822,  and  George  William  Curtis,  February  24, 
1824.  Mrs.  Curtis  died  in  1826  when  George  was 
but  two  years  old.  In  1835  Mr.  Curtis  married,  as 
his  second  wife,  a  daughter  of  Samuel  W.  Bridg- 
ham,  of  Providence.  Of  Mr.  Curtis  his  eldest  son 
(now  living  in  England)  writes  that  he  was  of 
44  high  integrity,  sound,  practical  judgment,  and  ex 
cellent  business  talents,  together  with  political  arid 
literary  taste.  He  was  popular  among  his  associ 
ates  —  leading  business  and  professional  men  — • 


FAMILY  AND    YOUTH.  1 

in  Providence  and  New  York.  He  was  most  affec 
tionate  and  beloved  in  his  family,  and  extremely 
kind  and  indulgent  to  his  children,  though  sharp 
and  severe  in  his  demands  as  to  manners  and 
morals.  He  valued  truthfulness  and  honesty  above 
all  other  qualities,  and  his  example  and  influence 
in  these  respects  early  impressed  both  George  and 
me  very  deeply.  In  a  letter  of  1860  George,  reply 
ing  to  a  question  of  mine  about  his  religious  views, 
writes  thus  (the  italics  are  George's)  :  4 1  believe 
in  God,  who  is  love ;  that  all  men  are  brothers  ; 
and  that  the  only  essential  duty  of  every  man  is 
to  be  honest,  by  which  I  understand  his  absolute 
following  of  his  conscience  when  duly  enlightened. 
I  do  not  believe  that  God  is  anxious  that  men 
should  believe  this  or  that  theory  of  the  Godhead, 
or  of  the  Divine  Government,  but  that  they  should 
live  purely,  justly,  and  lovingly.'  These,  I  take  it, 
were  the  essential  articles  of  his  creed  to  the  end ; 
and,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  them,  at  least 
the  paramount  value,  or  his  estimation,  of  honesty 
and  practical  goodness,  is  conspicuous." 

To  this  instructive  glimpse  of  the  influence  of 
the  father  I  am  happily  able  to  add  one  equally  in 
structive,  from  the  same  source,  as  to  the  influence 
of  the  second  mother.  Mr.  J.  B.  Curtis  writes 
of  her :  "  She  was  a  woman  of  much  good  sense 
and  practical  energy,  of  strong  and  generous  sym 
pathies,  and  of  high  public  spirit  and  piety ;  and 
she  added  to  these  things  literary  cultivation  de 
cidedly  above  the  average.  She  wrote  with  ease, 


8  GEORGE    WILLIAM    CURTIS, 

whether  in  letters  or  other  compositions,  a  full, 
graceful,  flowing,  delightful  English  style.  She 
once  wrote  to  us  in  high  girlish  spirits  that  she  be 
lieved  she  loved  her  ready-made  children  the  best. 
Certainly  she  made  herself  to  a  very  unusual  de 
gree  our  intimate  friend  and  companion,  becoming 
mother  and  sister  (we  never  had  an  actual  sister) 
in  one  ;  and  she  was  thus  able  to  encourage  in 
George  and  me,  in  the  most  genial  and  natural 
way,  everything  that  was  good." 

From  the  age  of  six  to  that  of  eleven,  George, 
with  his  elder  brother,  attended  the  school  of  C.  W. 
Greene  at  Jamaica  Plain,  near  Boston ;  but  on 
his  father's  second  marriage  he  was  brought  again 
to  Providence  and  placed  in  school  there,  until  he 
was  fifteen,  when  (1839)  his  father  removed  to 
New  York.  Of  the  school  days  at  Jamaica  Plain 
I  know  nothing  save  that  they  left  pleasant  and 
tender  memories,  and  furnished  some  of  the  detail 
for  the  earlier  chapters  of  "Trumps."  There  is 
in  "  Sea  from  Shore,"  one  of  the  chapters  of  "  Prue 
and  I,"  a  picture  of  the  Providence  wharves  that 
is  worth  citing  for  its  delightful  local  color,  and 
its  suggestion  of  the  influence  of  the  seaside  town 
and  of  the  sensitiveness  of  the  boyish  mind :  — 

"  My  earliest  remembrances  are  of  a  long  range 
of  old,  half -dilapidated  stores  ;  red-brick  stores  with 
steep  wooden  roofs  and  stone  window-frames  and 
door-frames,  which  stood  upon  docks  built  as  if 
for  immense  trade  with  all  quarters  of  the  globe. 

"  Generally  there  were  only  a  few  sloops  moored 


FAMILY  AND    YOUTH. 

to  the  tremendous  posts,  which  I  fancied  could 
easily  hold  fast  a  Spanish  Armada  in  a  tropical 
hurricane.  But  sometimes  a  great  ship,  an  East 
Indiaman,  with  rusty,  seamed,  blistered  sides  and 
dingy  sails,  came  slowly  moving  up  the  harbor, 
with  an  air  of  indolent  self-importance  and  con 
sciousness  of  superiority,  which  inspired  me  with 
profound  respect.  If  the  ship  had  ever  chanced  to 
run  down  a  row-boat,  or  a  sloop,  or  any  specimen 
of  smaller  craft,  I  should  only  have  wondered  at 
the  temerity  of  any  floating  thing  in  crossing  the 
path  of  such  supreme  majesty.  The  ship  was  leis 
urely  chained  and  cabled  to  the  old  dock,  and  then 
came  the  disemboweling.  Long  after  the  confu 
sion  of  unloading  was  over,  and  the  ship  lay  as 
if  all  voyages  were  ended,  I  dared  to  creep  timor 
ously  along  the  edge  of  the  dock,  and,  at  great  risk 
of  falling  in  the  black  water  of  its  huge  shadow,  I 
placed  my  hand  upon  the  hot  hulk,  and  so  estab 
lished  a  mystic  and  exquisite  connection  with  Pa 
cific  Islands  ;  with  palm  groves  and  all  the  passion 
ate  beauties  they  embower  ;  with  jungles,  Bengal 
tigers,  pepper,  and  the  crushed  feet  of  Chinese  fair 
ies.  I  touched  Asia,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and 
the  Happy  Islands.  I  would  not  believe  that  the 
heat  I  felt  was  of  our  Northern  sun ;  to  my  finer 
sympathy,  it  burned  with  equatorial  fervor. 

"  The  freight  was  piled  in  the  old  stores.  I  be 
lieve  that  many  of  them  remain,  but  they  have 
lost  their  character.  When  I  knew  them,  not  only 
was  I  younger,  but  partial  decay  had  overtaken 


10  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

the  town  ;  at  least  the  bulk  of  its  India  trade  had 
drifted  to  New  York  and  Boston.  But  the  appli 
ances  remained.  There  was  no  throng  of  busy 
traffickers;  and  after  school,  in  the  afternoon,  I 
strolled  by  and  gazed  into  the  solemn  interiors. 

"  Silence  reigned  within,  —  silence,  dimness,  and 
piles  of  foreign  treasures.  Vast  coils  of  cable,  like 
tame  boa-constrictors,  served  as  seats  for  men  with 
large  stomachs  and  heavy  watch-seals,  and  nankeen 
trousers,  who  sat  looking  out  of  the  door  toward 
the  ships,  with  little  other  sign  of  life  than  an 
occasional  low  talking,  as  if  in  their  sleep.  Huge 
hogsheads,  perspiring  brown  sugar,  and  oozing  slow 
molasses,  as  if  nothing  tropical  could  keep  within 
bounds,  but  must  continuously  expand  and  exude 
and  overflow,  stood  against  the  walls,  and  had  an 
architectural  significance,  for  they  darkly  reminded 
me  of  Egyptian  prints,  and  in  the  duskiness  of 
the  low-vaulted  store  seemed  cyclopean  columns 
incomplete.  Strange  festoons  and  heaps  of  bags ; 
square  piles  of  boxes  cased  in  mats,  bales  of  airy 
summer  stuffs  which  even  in  -winter  scoffed  at 
cold,  and  shamed  it  by  audacious  assumption  of 
eternal  sun  ;  little  specimen  boxes  of  precious  dyes, 
that  even  now  shine  through  my  memory  like  old 
Venetian  schools  unpainted,  —  these  were  all  there 
in  rich  confusion. 

"The  stores  had  a  twilight  of  dimness;  the  air 
was  spicy  with  mingled  odors.  I  liked  to  look 
suddenly  in  from  the  glare  of  sunlight  outside,  and 
then  the  cool  sweet  dimness  was  like  the  palpable 


FAMILY  AND    YOUTH.  11 

breath  of  the  far-off  island  groves ;  and  if  only 
some  parrot  or  macaw  hung  within  would  flaunt 
with  glistening  plumage  in  his  cage,  and,  as  the 
gay  hue  flashed  in  a  chance  sunbeam,  call  in  his 
hard,  shrill  voice,  as  if  thrusting  sharp  sounds  upon 
a  glistening  wire  from  out  that  grateful  gloom,  then 
the  enchantment  was  complete,  and  without  mov 
ing  I  was  circumnavigating  the  globe. 

"From  the  old  stores  and  the  docks  slowly 
crumbling,  touched,  I  knew  not  why  or  how,  by 
the  pensive  air  of  past  prosperity,  I  rambled  out  of 
town  on  those  well-remembered  afternoons  to  the 
fields  that  lay  upon  hillsides  over  the  harbor,  and 
there  sat  looking  out  to  sea,  fancying  some  distant 
sail,  proceeding  to  the  glorious  ends  of  the  earth,  to 
be  my  type  and  image,  who  would  so  sail,  stately 
and  successful,  to  all  the  glorious  ports  of  the  Fu 
ture." 

These  are  passages  both  of  memory  and  imagi 
nation,  and  date  fifteen  years  later  than  the  life  to 
which  they  relate.  But  the  memories  of  a  man  of 
thirty  are  not  dim,  and  the  imagination  owns  the 
spell  of  memory  when  it  plays  upon  the  time  of 
boyhood.  I  take  the  picture  to  be  a  true  one. 

In  these  early  days,  and  until  Curtis  was  twenty- 
five  years  old,  there  was  one  person  whose  influence, 
strong  and  continuous  and  intimate,  was  always  re 
membered  as  "  a  great  debt,"  —  his  brother  Burrill. 
During  this  quarter  of  a  century,  and  for  more  than 
a  third  of  Mr.  Curtis's  life,  they  were  constantly  to 
gether,  occupying  the  same  room  at  home,  at  school, 


12  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

at  Brook  Farm,  at  Concord,  and  during  much  of 
the  journeying  abroad.  He  is  the  model  from 
which  was  drawn  the  portrait  of  "  Our  Cousin  the 
Curate  "  in  "  Prue  and  I."  It  does  not  concern  me 
or  my  readers  to  know  how  far  the  story  embraced 
in  that  sketch  is  based  on  the  brothers'  experience, 
but  it  will  throw  light  on  the  springtime  of  Mr. 
Curtis's  life,  when  the  sap  coursed  free  and  strong 
and  the  force  and  direction  of  aftergrowth  were 
being  determined,  to  cite  here  a  few  passages  from 
the  sketch  :  — 

"  There  is  no  subject  which  does  not  seem  to  lead 
naturally  to  our  Cousin  the  Curate.  As  the  soft 
air  steals  in  and  envelops  everything  in  the  world, 
so  that  the  trees  and  the  hills  and  the  rivers,  the 
cities,  the  crops,  and  the  sea,  are  made  remote  and 
delicate  and  beautiful  by  its  pure  baptism,  so  over 
all  the  events  of  our  little  lives,  comforting,  refin 
ing,  and  elevating,  falls  like  a  benediction  the  re 
membrance  of  our  cousin  the  curate. 

"  He  was  my  only  early  companion.  He  had  no 
brother,  I  had  none,  and  we  became  brothers  to 
each  other.  He  was  always  beautiful.  His  face 
was  symmetrical  and  delicate ;  his  figure  was  slight 
and  graceful.  He  looked  as  the  sons  of  kings  ought 
to  look,  —  as  I  am  sure  Philip  Sidney  looked  when 
he  was  a  boy.  His  eyes  were  blue,  and  as  you  looked 
at  them  they  seemed  to  let  you  gaze  out  into  a 
June  heaven.  The  blood  ran  close  to  the  skin,  and 
his  complexion  had  the  rich  transparency  of  light. 
There  was  nothing  gross  or  heavy  in  his  expression 


FAMILY  AND    YOUTH.  13 

or  texture ;  his  soul  seemed  to  have  mastered  his 
body.  But  he  had  strong  passions,  for  his  delicacy 
was  positive,  not  negative ;  it  was  not  weakness, 
but  intensity. 

"  Often,  when  I  returned  panting  and  restless 
from  some  frolic  which  had  wasted  almost  all  the 
night,  I  was  rebuked  as  I  entered  the  room  in 
which  he  lay  peacefully  sleeping.  There  was  some 
thing  holy  in  the  profound  repose  of  his  beauty  ; 
and 'as  I  stood  looking  at  him,  how  many  a  time 
the  tears  have  dropped  from  my  hot  eyes  upon  his 
face,  while  I  vowed  to  make  myself  worthy  of  such 
a  companion  !  for  I  felt  my  heart  owning  its  alle 
giance  to  that  strong  and  imperial  nature. 

"  My  cousin  was  loved  by  the  boys,  but  the  girls 
worshiped  him.  His  mind,  large  in  grasp  and 
subtle  in  perception,  naturally  commanded  his  com 
panions,  while  the  lustre  of  his  character  allured 
those  who  could  not  understand  him.  The  asceti 
cism  occasionally  showed  itself  a  vein  of  hardness, 
or  rather  of  severity,  in  his  treatment  of  others. 
He  did  what  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  do,  but  he 
forgot  that  few  could  see  the  right  so  closely  as  he, 
and  very  few  of  those  few  could  so  calmly  obey  the 
least  command  of  conscience.  I  confess  I  was  a 
little  afraid  of  him,  for  I  think  I  never  could  be 
severe. 

"  In  the  long  winter  evenings  I  often  read  to 
Prue  the  story  of  some  old  father  of  the  church,  or 
some  quaint  poem  of  George  Herbert's ;  and  every 
Christmas  Eve  I  read  to  her  Milton's  4  Hymn  on  the 


14  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Nativity.'  Yet  when  the  saint  seems  to  us  most 
saintly,  or  the  poem  most  pathetic  or  sublime,  we 
find  ourselves  talking  of  our  cousin  the  curate.  I 
have  not  seen  him  for  many  years ;  but  when  we 
parted,  his  head  had  the  intellectual  symmetry  of 
Milton's,  without  the  Puritanic  stoop,  and  with  the 
stately  grace  of  a  cavalier." 


CHAPTER  II. 

EMERSON  AND  BROOK  FARM. 

WITH  the  evidence  afforded  in  the  passages 
quoted  in  the  last  chapter,  written  some  six  years 
after  parting  with  his  brother  in  Europe,  of  the 
place  that  brother  held  in  his  heart  and  life,  I  ven 
ture  to  give  some  notes  by  Mr.  Burrill  Curtis  of 
their  life  together  from  1835,  when  they  returned 
from  school  to  Providence,  to  1846,  when  they 
sailed  for  Europe :  — 

"Not  long  after  (1835),  another  powerful  in 
fluence  reached  us,  which  prevailed  in  our  lives  for 
seven  or  eight  years.  This  was  the  influence  of 
R.  W.  Emerson.  It  was  then  first  beginning  to 
extend  itself  in  New  England,  and  not  only  the 
United  States,  but  Great  Britain  also,  have  since 
become  indebted  to  it.  He  was  the  sympathizing 
leader  and  moderating  patron,  so  to  speak,  of  that 
ferment  and  stir  after  all  kinds  of  reform  which, 
according  to  his  own  account,  had  taken  possession 
of  so  many  men  and  women  around  him  from 
about  the  year  1820  onward.  His  large  endow 
ment  of  cheerful  humor,  of  intellectual  acuteness, 
and  of  sober  common-sense  did  not  prevent  his 
holding  persistently  aloft,  in  an  exceptional  degree, 
the  torch  of  the  ideal  in  everything ;  and  though 


16  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

his  thought  was  usually  characterized  by  profun 
dity,  comprehensiveness,  and  severe  balance,  —  al 
beit  it  was  often  too  fine-spun  and  mystical,  —  he 
was  so  sanguine,  and  so  optimistically  enamored  of 
his  ideals,  as  not  unfrequently  to  overlook  the  ex 
orbitancy  and  impracticability  of  some  of  them. 
He  was  an  ardent  apostle  of  4  liberty  '  even  to  the 
apparent  obeying  of  one's  '  whims  ; '  but  he  was 
an  equally  ardent  and  strenuous  apostle  of  c  law ' 
in  its  highest  or  most  stringent  senses.  Nature's 
law  (which  includes  the  moral  law)  ordains  lib 
erty,  it  is  true,  but  it  ordains  the  '  regulation  '  of 
liberty  also;  and  while  Emerson  stands  on  the 
one  hand  stoutly  for  freedom,  independence,  self- 
reliance,  heroism,  —  nay,  even  inconsistency  and 
nonconformity,  —  he  stands  on  the  other  hand  as 
piously  and  immovably,  like  a  rapt  saint,  for  obedi 
ence  to  natural  and  moral  law.  Our  coming  into 
contact  with  this  New  England  4  movement '  (called 
in  our  time  '  Transcendentalism  '),  and  especially 
with  its  leader  and  moderator,  proved  to  be  the 
cardinal  event  of  our  youth ;  and  I  cannot  but 
think  that  the  seed  then  sown  took  such  deep  root 
as  to  flower  continuously  in  our  later  years,  and 
make  us  both  the  confirmed  '  Independents  '  that 
we  were  and  are,  whilst  fully  conscious  at  the  same 
time  of  the  obligation  of  living  in  all  possible  har 
mony  with  our  fellows, 

"  I  still  recall  the  impressions  produced  by  Em 
erson's  delivery  of  his  address  on  the  4  Over-Soul' 
in  Mr.  Hartshorn's  semicircular  school  -  room  in 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK   FARM.  17 

Providence,  our  native  town.  He  seemed  to  speak 
as  an  inhabitant  of  heaven,  and  with  the  inspiration 
and  authority  of  a  prophet.  Although  a  large  part 
of  the  matter  of  that  discourse,  when  reduced  to  its 
lowest  terms,  does  not  greatly  differ  from  the  com 
monplaces  of  piety  and  religion,  yet  its  form  and 
its  tone  were  so  fresh  and  vivid  that  they  made 
the  matter  also  seem  to  be  uttered  for  the  first 
time,  and  to  be  a  direct  outcome  from  the  inmost 
source  of  the  highest  truth.  We  heard  Emerson 
lecture  frequently,  and  made  his  personal  acquaint 
ance.  My  enthusiastic  admiration  of  him  and  his 
writings  soon  mounted  to  a  high  and  intense  '  hero- 
worship,'  which,  when  it  subsided,  seems  to  have 
left  me  ever  since  incapable  of  attaching  myself  as 
a  follower  to  any  other  man.  How  far  George 
shared  such  feelings,  if  at  all,  I  cannot  precisely 
say ;  but  he  so  far  shared  my  enthusiastic  admira 
tion  as  to  be  led  a  willing  captive  to  Emerson's 
attractions,  and  to  the  incidental  attractions  of  the 
movement  of  which  he  was  the  head  ;  and  Emerson 
always  continued  to  command  from  us  both  the 
sincerest  reverence  and  homage. 

"  I  do  not  remember  that  George  ever  commit 
ted  himself  to  any  important  extravagance  of  '  re 
form.'  I,  for  my  part,  was  at  first  carried  away 
into  personal  experiments  of  disusing  money  and 
animal  food ;  but  I  was  soon  convinced  of  my 
errors  and  abandoned  them.  Comparatively  unim 
portant  vagaries  about  dress  we  both  partook  of. 
The  'movement'  affected  and  modified  our  aims 


18  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

and  ideas  in  various  respects  as  individuals,  but 
did  not  enlist  us  as  permanent  and  well-drilled 
soldiers  in  social  schemes  and  causes.  It  awakened 
our  interest  in  the  reforming  ideas  of  others  around 
us  ;  but  neither  the  anti-slavery  cause  (which  after 
wards  aroused  in  George  an  heroic  zeal  and  devo 
tion),  nor  the  temperance  cause,  nor  any  other, 
however  apparently  important,  then  secured  from 
us  anything  more  than  a  reasonable  speculative 
consideration.  We  were  intent  mainly,  not  on  re 
forming  others,  or  reforming  society  at  large,  but 
on  the  ordering  of  our  own  individual  lives.'' 

In  1839,  when  George  was  fifteen,  his  father  re 
moved  from  Providence  to  New  York,  and  became 
connected  with  the  Bank  of  Commerce,  first  as 
cashier  and  afterwards  as  president.  His  home 
was  on  the  north  side  of  Washington  Place,  then 
the  centre  of  the  most  desirable  residence  quarter 
of  the  city.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  note  that  the  fine 
old  house  has  remained  for  more  than  half  a  cen 
tury  in  the  Curtis  family,  and  is  one  of  the  few  in 
which  has  been  amassed  a  fund  of  those  associa 
tions,  glad  or  sad,  but  with  the  lapse  of  time  always 
and  uniquely  sweet,  which  make  a  house,  in  a  far 
deeper  than  the  technical  sense,  "real"  estate. 
Mr.  George  Curtis,  by  his  personal  qualities,  tastes, 
and  attainments,  as  by  his  business  relations  and 
ability,  became  naturally  a  member  of  what  was  in 
truth,  if  not  by  its  own  claim,  the  best  society  of 
the  city  of  that  time,  and  in  this  society  both  he 
and  his  wife  were  fitted  to  get  and  to  give  the  best. 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK  FARM.  19 

They  were  members,  first,  of  Dr.  Orville  Dewey's 
Unitarian  congregation,  and  afterwards  of  that  of 
Dr.  Bellows.  Young  Curtis  was  surrounded  by 
influences  that  awakened  and  developed  in  him  the 
remarkable  social  gifts  which  afterwards  distin 
guished  him,  and  trained  his  active  and  adventur 
ous  mind  in  healthy  ways.  I  do  not  learn  much  of 
the  details  of  his  life  at  this  time,  further  than  that 
he  devoted  a  good  deal  of  time  to  study  at  home, 
partly  under  the  guidance  of  tutors,  partly  under 
that  of  his  father  and  mother,  and  that  there  was  a 
brief  experience  in  the  counting-room  of  a  German 
importing  and  shipping  house,  which  was  abandoned, 
for  what  reason  I  cannot  say,  but  with  happy  result. 
Mr.  Burrill  Curtis  writes  :  "  As  I,  while  at  col 
lege,  had  fallen  so  much  under  the  influence  of 
the  New  England  c  Transcendental  Movement '  as 
to  have  been  led  by  it  into  a  practical  vagary  about 
money  and  its  use,  it  was  probably  something  of  a 
relief  to  our  father  that,  a  while  after  my  having 
come  to  my  senses,  George  and  I  proposed  nothing 
worse  than  to  become  boarders,  and  boarders  only, 
with  the  Community  at  Brook  Farm."  This  was  in 
1842,  and  about  two  years  were  passed  by  the  bro 
thers  at  West  Roxbury, — for  George,  the  years  from 
eighteen  to  twenty.  As  he  and  his  brother  were 
"  boarders,  and  boarders  only,"  it  is  hardly  worth 
while  to  describe  here  the  purposes  of  the  founders 
of  this  peculiar  home.  Mr.  Emerson,  in  his  "  His 
toric  Notes  of  Life  and  Letters  in  New  England,'5 
sums  them  up  sufficiently  :  — 


20  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

"  The  founders  of  Brook  Farm  should  have  this 
praise,  that  they  made  what  all  people  try  to  make, 
an  agreeable  place  to  live  in.  All  comers,  even  the 
most  fastidious,  found  it  the  pleasantest  of  resi 
dences.  It  is  certain  that  freedom  from  household 
routine,  variety  of  character  and  talent,  variety  of 
work,  variety  of  means  of  thought  and  instruction, 
art,  music,  poetry,  reading,  masquerade,  did  not  per 
mit  sluggishness  or  despondency,  broke  up  routine. 
There  is  agreement  in  the  testimony  that  it  was,  to 
most  of  the  associates,  education  ;  to  many  the  most 
important  period  of  their  life,  the  birth  of  valued 
friendships,  their  first  acquaintance  with  the  riches 
of  conversation,  their  training  in  behavior.  The 
art  of  letter-writing,  it  is  said,  was  immensely  cul 
tivated  ;  letters  were  always  flying,  not  only  from 
house  to  house,  but  from  room  to  room.  It  was  a 
perpetual  picnic,  a  French  Revolution  in  small,  an 
Age  of  Reason  in  a  patty-pan." 

Unfortunately,  Mr.  Emerson,  like  many  smaller 
men,  was  not  wholly  free  from  the  temptation  of 
phrase-making,  and  the  last  sentence  is  more  amus 
ing  than  clear.  So  far  as  I  can  trace  the  influence 
of  the  life  at  Brook  Farm  on  young  Curtis,  he  es 
caped  pretty  well  the  element  of  the  "  French  Revo 
lution  "  and  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  unquestionably 
made  close  and  valuable  friendships,  and  had  (as 
well  as  contributed)  his  full  share  of  the  "  picnic." 
I  find  that  he  studied,  with  apparently  much  appli 
cation,  German,  agricultural  chemistry,  and  music, 
the  last  with  great  zest  under  the  instruction  of  Mr. 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK  FARM.  21 

John  D wight.  In  June,  1843,  his  second  year,  he 
wrote  to  his  father  :  — 

"  My  life  is  summery  enough.  We  breakfast  at 
six  and  from  seven  to  twelve  I  am  at  work.  After 
dinner,  these  fair  days  permit  no  homage  but  to 
their  beauty,  and  I  am  fain  to  woo  their  smiles  in 
the  shades  and  sunlights  of  the  woods.  A  festal  life 
for  one  before  whom  the  great  sea  stretches  which 
must  be  sailed;  yet  this  summer  air  teaches  life- 
navigation,  and  I  listen  to  the  flowing  streams,  and 
to  the  cool  rush  of  the  winds  among  the  trees,  with 
an  increase  of  that  hope  which  is  the  only  pole-star 
of  life." 

This  expresses,  I  should  say,  the  spirit  of  the 
youth.  It  was  essentially  earnest  in  its  main  mo 
tive,  and  was  not  inconsistent  with  the  utmost  de 
light  in  the  pleasures  that  presented  themselves,  or 
that  were  to  be  had  for  the  seeking.  He  had  a 
most  pleasing  voice,  and  a  face  and  form  of  exqui 
site  beauty,  and  I  read  of  his  singing  lingering  in 
the  memory  of  his  companions  thirty  years  later, 
and  of  equally  vivid  recollections  of  his  personal 
charm.  One  chronicler  recalls  a  "  masquerade  pic 
nic  in  the  woods,"  —  "  We  were  thrown  into  con 
vulsions  of  laughter  at  the  sight  of  G.  W.  C. 
dressed  as  Fanny  Elssler,  making  courtesies  and 
pirouetting  down  the  path ;  "  and  another  occasion 
when  he  "  led  the  quadrille  as  Hamlet,  and  looked 
4  the  Dane  '  to  the  life." 

A  lady  who  was  a  resident  at  Brook  Farm,  and 
whose  friendship  then  formed  lasted  through  the 


22  GEORGE  WILLIAM    CURTIS. 

life  of  Curtis,  furnishes  some  notes  as  to  that 
time  that  confirm  the  impression  I  have  indicated. 
She  recalls  one  "  bright  May  morning "  when, 
going  from  the  "  Eyrie  "  to  the  "  Hive  "  for  break 
fast,  sne  approached  the  "gate  through  which 
George  Bradford  and  the  fascinating  Hawthorne  " 
were  wont  to  drive  the  cows.  The  gate  was  "  held 
wide  open  by  our  handsome  young  man,  Charles  A. 
Dana,  who  did  himself  proud  at  such  honors,  not 
having  the  certain  reserve  and  diffidence  that  many 
of  our  Brook  Farm  men  had.  .  .  .  With  C.  A.  D. 
were  two  young  men  who,  as  I  remember  them, 
looked  like  young  Greek  gods.  '  These  must  be  the 
Curtises,'  I  thought,  '  two  wonderfully  charming 
young  men  '  of  whom  Mr.  Ripley  had  spoken. 

"  Burrill,  the  elder,  with  a  typical  Greek  face  and 
long  hair  falling  to  his  shoulders  in  irregular  curls, 
I  remember  as  most  unconscious  of  himself,  inter 
ested  in  all  about  him,  talking  of  the  Greek  philoso 
phers  as  if  he  had  just  come  from  one  of  Socrates' 
walks,  carrying  the  high  philosophy  into  his  daily 
life ;  helping  the  young  people  with  hard  arithmetic 
lessons;  trimming  the  lamps  daily  at  the  Eyrie, 
where  the  brothers  came  to  live  (my  sister  saw 
George  assisting  him  one  day,  and  occasionally,  she 
says,  he  turned  his  face  with  a  disgusted  expression, 
trying  to  puff  away  the  disagreeable  odor)  ;  never 
losing  control  of  himself,  with  the  kindest  man 
ner  to  every  person.  He  and  George  seemed  very 
companionable  and  fond  of  each  other. 

"  George,  though  only  eighteen,  —  one  year  older 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK  FARM.  23 

than  I, —  seemed  much  older,  like  a  man  of  twenty- 
five  possibly,  with  a  peculiar  elegance,  if  I  may 
so  express  it;  great  and  admirable  attention,  as  I 
recollect,  when  listening  to  any  one ;  courteous  rec 
ognition  of  others'  convictions  and  even  prejudices ; 
and  never  a  personal  animosity  o£  any  kind,  — 
a  certain  remoteness  of  manner,  however,  that  I 
think  prevented  persons  from  becoming  acquainted 
with  him  as  easily  as  with  Burrill. 

"  George  and  Mr.  Bradford,  on  cold,  stormy  wash 
ing  days  in  winter,  used  to  wrap  themselves  as 
warmly  as  possible,  and  insisted  on  hanging  out 
the  clothes  for  the  women, —  a  chivalry  equal  to 
that  of  Walter  Raleigh  throwing  down  his  cloak 
before  the  Queen  Elizabeth." 

This  lady  speaks  also  of  the  part  taken  by  George 
Curtis  in  the  gayeties  of  the  place,  and  the  charm 
he  lent  them.  I  find  in  one  of  his  own  letters, 
written  a  few  years  after  leaving  Roxbury,  a  remi 
niscence  of  Brook  Farm  that  shows  the  impression 
made  by  some  of  the  characters  there.  He  speaks 
of  "the  solemn  sphynx,  Alcott,  dispensing  his 

great  discourse  on  one  of  his  visitations  with  L , 

his  solemn  shadow,  to  Brook  Farm,  when  he  held 
a  talk  in  the  dreary  Morton  House  one  glorious 
June  evening.  It  was  as  stately  and  inhuman  as 
if  there  had  been  no  stars  shining,  and  Carrie  S. 
and  I  slipped  out  of  one  of  the  long  windows  and 
\rent  to  walk.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  Mr.  Alcott 
is  too  old  to  learn  that  the  condition  of  the  King 
dom  is,  not  the  being  a  grave  philosopher,  but  a 


24  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

little  child.  Yet  he  always  has  about  him  the 
grandeur  you  would  predict  of  his  brow  and  eye, 
the  solitary  old  sphynx  grandeur  of  the  desert." 

I  add  the  following  reference,  in  a  letter  to  his 
father,  to  Webster  and  his  oration  at  Bunker  Hill 
in  June,  1843-,  partly  because  a  good  sign  of  what 
a  boy  of  nineteen  has  in  him  is  what  he  finds  in 
others,  and  partly  because  these  extracts  show  the 
fine  and  fruitful  sympathy  between  young  Curtis 
and  his  father  :  — 

"I  was  sorry  not  to  see  you  on  the  day  we 
watched  eagerly  the  coming  of  the  '  Sons  of  New 
England  from  New  York,'  when  they  were  inarch 
ing  to  the  Common  to  form.  The  day  was  a  fine 
one  to  me.  Finest  of  all,  that  I  saw  <and  heard 
Daniel  Webster.  We  struggled  through  the 
crowd,  and  stood  only  a  rod  or  two  in  front  of 
him,  saw  him  plainly,  heard  him  distinctly.  It 
was  a  noble  spectacle.  As  far  on  one  side  as  the 
eye  could  reach  up  the  hill  was  a  silent  multitude, 
out  of  whose  midst,  solemnly  and  lonely  against 
the  sky,  rose  the  monument.  On  the  other  stood 
this  man  solemn  and  lonely  also,  the  strength  of 
Olympian  Jove  in  his  figure  and  mein,  yet  a  wild, 
lonely  spectacle.  Too  great  for  party,  not  yet 
great  enough  for  quiet  independence.  Not  the 
calm  dignity  of  a  soul  self-centred  who  rules  the 
world,  but  the  restless  grandeur  of  a  Titan  storm 
ing  heaven.  His  mouth  curled,  his  eye  flashed,  as 
if  among  that  mass  he  was  king,  but  the  higher 
crown  could  not  be  seen  upon  him.  Though  by 


EMERSON   AND    BROOK   FARM.  25 

no  means  satisfying  my  idea  of  a  great  man,  he  is 
certainly  a  strong  man,  —  Hercules,  if  not  Apollo." 

Brook  Farm  was  notoriously  the  home  of  re 
formers.  A  lad  as  warm-hearted,  eager,  and  imag 
inative  as  Curtis  might  easily  have  been  unsettled 
and  warped  by  them.  That  he  was  not  is  shown 
in  the  following  passages  from  still  another  letter 
to  his  father,  in  which  that  keen  guardian  of  san 
ity,  a  sense  of  humor,  shines  lightly :  — 

"  DEAR  FATHER,  —  Will  you  send  me  $20  to  pay 
for  a  coat  which  I  have  had  made  in  Boston  ?  You 
will  smile  at  such  a  request  after  my  unmitigated 
condemnation  of  coats  and  resolute  tunic-wearing 
in  Providence  last  summer ;  yet  had  you  taken  apart 
ments  in  my  mind  since  then,  and  closely  observed 
all  changes  and  growths  that  occurred,  you  would 
see  how  natural  it  is.  The  stern  protest,  which  dis 
tinguishes  the  birth  of  reform,  against  society,  the 
church,  and  all  things  but  the  sovereign  /,  gradually 
gives  way  to  that  other  better  state  of  affirmation 
and  reception  which,  deserting  the  faith  not  a  whit, 
leads  an  outward  life  in  beautiful  harmony  with  all 
men  and  things  !  '  What  was  done  before,'  says 
Fenelon,  '  to  gratify  the  lusts  and  vanities  of  the 
man  is  now  done  for  the  glory  of  God.'  No  wise 
man  is  long  a  reformer,  for  Wisdom  sees  plainly 
that  growth  is  steady,  sure,  and  neither  condemns 
nor  rejects  what  is,  or  has  been.  Reform  is  organ 
ized  distrust.  It  says  to  the  universe  fresh  from 
God's  hand,  4  You  are  a  miserable  business  ;  lo ! 
I  will  make  you  fairer  1 '  and  so  deputes  some 


26  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Fourier  or  Robert  Owen  to  improve  the  bungling 
work  of  the  Creator."  After  a  couple  of  pages  of 
this  elaborate  badinage,  the  youngster  concludes : 
"  From  such  brief  hints,  possibly  some  time  to  be 
expanded  as  more  light  flows  in,  you  may  get  dim 
glimpses  at  my  position,  and  so  perhaps  not  alto 
gether  smiling,  send  me  $20." 

The  importance  of  the  Brook  Farm  episode  in 
Curtis's  life  may  very  easily  be  exaggerated,  and 
I  think  has  been  so  in  the  minds  of  some  who 
have  written  of  him.  The  fame,  not  to  say  the 
notoriety,  of  the  place  and  the  persons  associated 
with  it  made  a  strong  impression,  though  a  vague 
one;  and  it  is  almost  unavoidable  that  any  one 
even  indirectly  engaged  in  the  "  movement  "  should 
have  borne  a  more  or  less  distinct  mark  of  it  in 
the  public  mind,  and  not  wholly  to  his  advantage, 
since  it  suggests  a  strain  of  "  queerness."  I  very 
well  recall  the  conviction  of  a  man  of  strong  na 
ture,  in  general  sympathy  with  Mr.  Curtis  in  his 
mature  years,  who  accounted  for  the  views  of  the 
latter  on  the  rights  of  women  by  the  theory  that 
"  there  must  be  a  screw  loose  somewhere  in  a 
man  who  graduated  from  that  lunatic  school  at 
Brook  Farm."  It  is  true  that  Mr.  Ripley,  the 
very  father  of  the  scheme,  became  one  of  the 
broadest,  sanest,  and  most  just  of  literary  crit 
ics  ;  that  Mr.  Dana,  who  was  a  very  active  coad 
jutor  of  Mr.  Ripley,  became  a  famous  journalist, 
whose  acute  and  trained  scholarship  was  coupled 
with  qualities  not  at  all  suggestive  of  fanaticism, 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK  FARM.  27 

and  whose  aims  were  the  opposite  of  visionary  or 
Utopian.  Unquestionably  Curtis  was  influenced 
strongly  by  the  experience  of  those  two  years ;  he 
must  have  been  a  very  dull  boy  had  he  not  been  ; 
and  what  that  influence  was,  in  part,  is  described 
in  the  lines  of  Uhland's  Song,  of  which  he  was 
fond :  — 

"  What  morning  dreams  reveal  to  me 
The  evening  makes  forever  true." 

There  was  much  in  the  generous  confidence,  the 
courageous  hope,  the  high  aspiration,  and  the  fine 
assertion  of  the  right  and  duty  of  individuality 
of  the  leaders  at  Brook  Farm  with  which  Curtis 
remained  in  intimate  sympathy  all  his  life  ;  and 
he  had  no  less  true  appreciation  of  it,  but  one  all 
the  more  true,  because  he  saw  the  comical  side  of 
the  experience  and  enjoyed  it. 

In  one  of  the  Easy  Chair  essays,  Mr.  Curtis 
wrote  of  Brook  Farm  a  propos  of  a  passage  in 
Hawthorne's  "  Note-Book : "  "  The  society  at  Brook 
Farm  was  composed  of  every  kind  of  person. 
There  were  the  ripest  scholars,  men  and  women 
of  the  most  aesthetic  culture  and  accomplishment, 
young  farmers,  seamstresses,  mechanics,  preachers, 
the  industrious,  the  lazy,  the  conceited,  the  senti 
mental.  But  they  associated  in  such  a  spirit,  and 
under  such  conditions,  that,  with  some  extrava 
gance,  the  best  of  everybody  appeared,  and  there 
was  a  kind  of  high  esprit  de  corps,  at  least  in 
the  earlier  or  golden  age  of  the  colony.  There 
was  plenty  of  steady,  essential,  hard  work,  for  the 


28  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

founding  of  an  earthly  paradise  upon  a  New 
England  farm  is  no  pastime.  But  with  the  best 
intention,  and  much  practical  knowledge  and  in 
dustry  and  devotion,  there  was  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  an  inevitable  lack  of  method,  and  economi 
cal  failure  was  almost  a  foregone  conclusion.  But 
there  were  never  such  witty  potato  patches,  and 
such  sparkling  corn-fields  before  or  since.  The 
weeds  were  scratched  out  of  the  ground  to  the 
music  of  Tennyson  or  Browning,  and  the  nooning 
was  an  hour  as  gay  and  bright  as  any  brilliant 
midnight  at  Ambrose's. 

"  Compared  with  other  efforts  upon  which  time 
and  money  and  industry  are  lavished,  measured 
by  Colorado  and  Nevada  speculations,  by  Califor 
nia  gold  -  washing,  by  oil -boring  and  the  stock 
exchange,  Brook  Farm  was  certainly  a  very  rea 
sonable  and  practical  enterprise,  worthy  of  the 
hope  and  aid  of  generous  men  and  women.  The 
friendships  that  were  formed  there  were  enduring. 
The  devotion  to  noble  endeavor,  the  sympathy 
with  what  is  most  useful  to  men,  the  kind  pa 
tience  and  constant  charity  that  were  fostered 
there,  have  been  no  more  lost  than  grain  dropped 
upon  the  field.  .  .  .  The  spirit  that  was  concen 
trated  at  Brook  Farm  is  diffused,  but  not  lost. 
As  an  organized  effort,  after  many  downward 
changes,  it  failed ;  but  those  who  remember  the 
Hive,  the  Eyrie,  the  Cottage,  when  Margaret 
Fuller  came  and  talked,  radiant  with  bright 
humor,  —  when  Emerson  and  Parker  and  Hedge 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK  FARM.  29 

joined  the  circle  for  a  night  or  day;  when  those 
who  may  not  be  named  publicly  brought  beauty 
and  wit  and  social  sympathy  to  the  feast ;  when 
the  practical  possibilities  of  life  seemed  fairer,  and 
life  and  character  were  touched  ineffaceably  with 
good  influence,  —  cherish  a  pleasant  vision  which 
no  fate  can  harm,  and  remember  with  ceaseless 
gratitude  the  blithe  days  at  Brook  Farm." 

After  Brook  Farm  there  was  an  interval  at  home 
in  New  York  which  was  crowded  with  work  and 
pleasure.  The  latter  came  chiefly  from  music 
and  the  social  circle  in  which  the  family  moved. 
In  November,  1843,  he  writes  from  New  York  to  a 
very  dear  friend,  with  whom  the  relations  formed 
at  Brook  Farm  continued  through  life :  "  I  have 
heard  fine  music  since  I  have  been  here,  —  Ole 
Bull,  Castillan,  etc.,  etc."  After  describing  some 
of  his  social  occupations,  he  adds  :  "  My  days  I  pass 
in  my  room  reading  Goethe's  4  Wilhelm  Meister ' 
and  Novalis.  With  Burrill  I  read  'Agricultural 
Chemistry '  and  '  Practical  Agriculture.'  Next 
week,  with  mother,  we  shall  begin  the  Epistles  and 
Gospels.  Apart  from  these,  more  strictly,  studies, 
I  am  reading  Shakespeare,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
Massinger,  Ford,  and  smaller  poets." 

Thus  the  winter  passed  in  the  old  home.  In  the 
spring  of  1844  the  brothers,  George  being  then 
just  passed  twenty,  went  to  Concord,  "  for  the  bet 
ter  furtherance,"  as  the  elder  writes,  "  of  our  main 
and  original  end,  —  the  desire  to  unite  in  our  own 
persons  the  freedom  of  a  country  life  with  moderate 


30  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

outdoor  manual  occupation,  and  with  intellectual 
cultivation  and  pursuits. 

"At  Concord  we  first  took  up  our  residence  in 
the  family  of  an  elderly  farmer,  recommended  by 
Mr.  Emerson.  We  gave  up  half  the  day  (except 
in  haytime,  when  we  gave  the  whole  day)  to  shar 
ing  the  farm  work  indiscriminately  with  the  farm 
laborers.  The  rest  of  the  day  we  devoted  to  other 
pursuits,  or  to  social  intercourse  or  correspondence ; 
and  we  had  a  flat-bottomed  rowing-boat  built  for 
us,  in  which  we  spent  very  many  afternoons  on  the 
pretty  little  river.  For  our  second  season  we  re 
moved  to  another  farm  and  farmer's  house,  nearer 
Mr.  Emerson  and  Walden  Pond,  where  we  occu 
pied  only  a  single  room,  making  our  own  beds  and 
living  in  the  very  simplest  and  most  primitive  style. 
A  small  piece  of  ground,  which  we  hired  of  the 
farmer,  we  cultivated  for  ourselves,  raising  vege 
tables  only  and  selling  the  superfluous  produce, 
and  distributing  our  time  much  as  before." 

Here  was  a  very  different  life  from  that  of 
Brook  Farm.  Both  had  in  common  healthy,  out 
door  occupation  which  built  up  Curtis's  constitu- 
%tion,  and  helped  make  possible  the  arduous  and  in 
cessant  labor  of  later  years,  and  both  had  the  charm 
and  advantage  of  dwelling  with  nature  in  a  lovely 
land.  But  the  "  picnic  "  and  the  "  masquerade  " 
of  Brook  Farm  had  given  place  to  afternoons  in 
the  woods  or  on  the  water ;  and  the  social  inter 
course  was  simpler,  graver,  less  exciting,  though 
not  less  stimulating,  and  more  formative.  "  Have 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK  FARM.  31 

I  told  you  of  our  club,"  he  writes  to  his  father, 
—  "  Mr.  Alcott,  Mr.  Emerson,  Mr.  Hawthorne,  El- 
lery  Channing,  Henry  Thoreau,  George  Bradford, 
Burrill  and  I,  some  known  to  you  ?  We  meet  on 
Monday  eves  in  Mr.  Emerson's  library,  and  there 
discuss 

" '  Fate,  freewill,  foreknowledge  absolute.'  " 

Some  half  dozen  years  later,  in  an  article  on 
Emerson  written  for  the  "  Homes  of  American 
Authors,"  Mr.  Curtis  gives  a  reminiscence  of  this 
club :  "  I  went,  the  first  Monday  evening,  very 
much  as  Ixion  may  have  gone  to  his  banquet. 
The  philosophers  sat  dignified  and  erect.  There 
was  a  constrained  but  very  amiable  silence,  which 
had  the  impertinence  of  a  tacit  inquiry,  seeming  to 
ask,  4  Who  will  now  proceed  to  say  the  finest  thing 
that  has  ever  been  said  ? '  It  was  quite  involuntary 
and  unavoidable,  for  the  members  lacked  that 
fluent  social  genius  without  which  a  club  is  im 
possible.  I  vaguely  remember  that  the  Orphic 
Alcott  invaded  the  Sahara  of  silence  with  a  solemn 
'saying,'  to  which,  after  due  pause,  the  honora 
ble  member  for  Blackberry  Pastures1  responded 
by  some  keen  and  graphic  observation,  —  while 
the  Olympian  host,2  anxious  that  so  much  good 
material  should  be  spun  into  something,  beamed 
smiling  encouragement  upon  all  parties.  But  the 
conversation  became  more  and  more  staccato. 
Miles  Coverdale,3  a  statue  of  night  and  silence,  sat, 
a  little  removed,  under  a  portrait  of  Dante,  gazing 

1  Thoreau.  2  Emerson.  8  Hawthorne. 


32  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

imperturbably  upon  the  group ;  and  as  he  sat  in 
the  shadow,  his  dark  eyes  and  hair  and  suit  of 
sables  made  him,  in  that  society,  the  black  thread 
of  mystery  which  he  weaved  into  his  stories,  while 
the  shifting  presence  of  the  Brook  Farmer 1  played 
like  heat-lightning  around  the  room." 

Mr.  Curtis's  writings  contain  many  references 
to  these  happy,  fruitful  years  at  Concord :  glimpses 
of  the  temper  and  growth  of  his  mind  at  the  time 
will  be  had  from  the  following  extracts  from  let 
ters  to  his  father  in  the  autumn  of  1844  :  — 

"I  have  recently  been  reading  J.  Q.  Adams's 
address  to  his  constituents  in  1842,  and  Dr.  Chan- 
ning's  tracts  upon  slavery.  These  and  my  own 
observation  of  the  course  of  the  South,  especially 
within  a  year,  indicate  very  plainly  that  at  last  the 
country  will  divide  upon  Slavery.  This  will  not 
be  the  result  of  Northern  agitation,  but  of  the 
perpetual  attempt  of  the  South  to  extend  its  limits 
and  thereby  prolong  the  institution,  and  therefore 
to  continue  the  reserved  power  which  now  always 
confirms  its  attitude  towards  the  North.  This  at 
tempt,  which  now  is  plainly  seen,  which  now  forms 
one  of  the  two  great  topics  upon  which  the  parties 
—  indeed,  upon  which  the  North  and  the  South 
differ  —  will  not  be  tolerated  in  its  success  by  the 
conscience  of  Northern  men.  They  must  then 
take  the  stand  that  will  join  the  issue." 

Then  follows  an  ingenious  argument  as  to  the 
clause  in  the  Constitution  giving  representation  to 

1  Bradford. 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK   FARM.  33 

the  South  for  its  slaves  as  "  persons,"  though  held 
by  the  masters  as  "  property,"  and  as  to  the  inev 
itable  revolt  of  the  North  against  the  unfairness 
of  this  agreement,  and  the  arrogance  and  extrava 
gance  of  the  Southern  claims  regarding  it. 

"  The  conduct  of  the  South  outrages  the  moral 
sentiments  and  the  letter  of  the  laws,  and,  to  the 
remonstrance  of  the  North,  at  one  time  challenges 
it  with  intent  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  at  an 
other  fiercely  brandishes  the  threat  against  the 
North.  While  the  wise  statesman  calmly  illus 
trates  its  treachery  and  actual  violation  of  the 
compact,  let  him  firmly  say  that  we  can  submit 
no  longer  to  be  accomplices  in  this  angel-abhorred 
guilt.  We  do  not  deny  that  the  articles  of  Union 
bind  that  community  upon  us,  and  therefore  must 
insist  upon  amendments.  Quite  willing  not  to  in 
terfere  politically  in  the  matter  within  your  bor 
ders,  we  cannot,  we  will  not,  aid  you  in  so  mon 
strous  a  sin. 

"How  nobly  might  Mr.  Webster,  a  man  too 
great  that  we  should  ever  despair,  crown  his  fame 
in  hearts  which  would  fain  welcome  him,  but  can 
not  yet,  by  assuming  this  position  ! 

"  But  if  the  strongest  statesmen  will  not  advance 
in  this  matter,  there  must  come  men  from  different 
pursuits  than  politics  to  press  the  question  on.  It 
is  idle  to  think  or  to  hope  that  it  will  not  be  asked. 
Mr.  Choate  and  Mr.  Bates  and  the  courtly  Mr. 
Winthrop  and  colleagues  will  be  reserved  at  home 
for  graceful  times  of  peace  and  public  ease,  while 


34  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

men  that  cannot  speak  fluently  at  mass  meetings 
will  go  and  demand  justice  of  the  South.  They 
will  say :  '  We  will  unite  with  you  as  citizens,  not 
as  robbers  and  unjust.'  Dear  father,  write  me 
how  these  things  are.  I  trust  all  nobility  and  gen 
erosity  has  not  fled  out  of  politics,  and  left  them 
bells  and  baubles  for  foolish  men  to  wear." 

The  father  seems  to  have  pointed  out  in  reply 
the  value  of  the  Union,  and  the  hope  that  slavery 
would  yet  be  abolished  without  disunion.  To 
which  the  son  responded :  — 

"  I  read  your  last  letter  with  pleasure,  dear 
father,  for  I  did  not  know  if  mine  would  touch 
an  interest  that  was  very  prominent  in  your  mind. 
It  is  most  true  that  slavery  will  be  abolished 
finally  by  the  force  of  public  opinion.  But  the 
North  begins  to  groan  already.  While  it  recog 
nizes  the  comity  of  nations  and  the  solemn  bond, 
it  begins  to  speak  of  the  separation  with  plain 
words.  It  may  not  be  expedient  just  now,  but 
then  when  will  it  be  ?  The  old  conviction  that 
no  law,  no  arrangement,  no  gain,  can  permit  such 
direct  participation  as  is  provided  by  the  Constitu 
tion,  will  at  last  distinctly  demand  some  change, 
and,  even  if  the  demand  be  postponed  an  hundred 
years,  the  South  will  not  be  ready.  What  gains 
the  South  by  separation?  It  will  take  Texas  to 
its  bosom  and  possibly  conquer  Mexico,  but  no 
State  can  endure  the  unalterable  disapprobation  of 
the  world.  It  would  yield  to  the  heat  of  universal 
censure  like  wax.  It  becomes  a  very  grave  ques- 


EMERSON  AND  BROOK  FARM.  35 

tion  to  every  man.  In  the  event  of  a  disunion, 
the  North  might  enjoy  less  commerce  and  a  thou 
sand  decreased  political  advantages,  but,  as  unto 
an  individual  who  sacrifices  to  Justice,  there  would 
be  no  real  loss,  but  an  eternal  gain.  Nor  could  it 
tighten  the  bonds.  Men  complain  that  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  has  had  that  effect  upon  the 
slaves.  But  it  is  very  transitory,  if  it  be  so.  It 
is  the  winking  of  eyes  upon  which  light  suddenly 
flows,  —  a  moment  and  they  will  be  strong  and 
clear  in  the  sun.  It  is  not  credible  that  a  stroke 
for  freedom  ever  served  to  perpetuate  slavery, 
because  it  is  an  indication  of  that  spirit,  alive 
and  in  action,  to  which  alone  slavery  will  yield.  I 
nave  not  now  the  inclination  to  pursue  the  theme 
further,  though  it  has  wide  and  inviting  relations." 

This  is  not  a  weak  statement  for  a  young  man 
of  twenty.  Disunion  as  a  remedy  became  clearly 
enough  futile  and  unnecessary  to  his  riper  and 
better  informed  judgment,  but  the  conception  of 
the  evil  demanding  a  remedy  was  sound  and  firmly 
defined,  and  remained  through  the  gallant  struggle 
he  was  afterwards  to  make. 

In  another  letter  he  discusses  the  question  of 
the  tariff,  then  a  very  urgent  one.  Remembering 
that  his  father  was  a  protectionist,  and  had  pub 
licly  defended  protection,  the  letter  is  a  pleasing 
proof  at  once  of  the  son's  independence  and  of 
his  confidence  in  the  fair-mindedness  of  his  fa 
ther,  —  no  slight  element  in  the  education  of  the 
former :  — 


36  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

"Just  now  I  am  sad,  as  I  close  Webster's 
speeches  (the  old),  which  have  occupied  me  some 
days,  to  reflect  how  narrow  are  our  sympathies. 
Born  an  American,  I  am  by  that  fact  heir  to  cer 
tain  responsibilities.  But  also  I  am  born  an  in 
habitant  of  the  world.  I  owe  to  my  country  the 
duty  of  a  citizen,  but  I  cannot  surrender  to  that 
my  duty  as  a  man.  My  obligations  are  impera 
tive  towards  Englishmen  and  Frenchmen.  If  I  am 
bound,  so  far  as  lies  in  me,  to  see  that  my  land  is 
well  governed,  I  must  not  forget  that  no  govern 
ment  is  essentially  good  for  that  land  which  is 
selfish  and  small.  My  country  is  well  governed 
when  the  world  is.  All  my  obligations  as  a  man 
include  those  of  a  citizen.  I  have  no  right  to 
protect  American  labor  at  the  expense  of  foreign. 
What  does  it  matter  to  me  or  to  God  whether 
Lowell  or  Manchester  be  ruined?  Extend  this 
into  politics  and  it  places  us  upon  a  wide,  universal 
platform.  It  does  not  suffer  any  American  feeling 
or  British  feeling.  While  I  confess  that  the  British 
laborers  starve,  I  do  not  do  very  well  to  refuse  to 
take  what  they  make  ;  I  must  pull  down  my  restric 
tive  laws.  I  must  say  to  the  whole  world,  '  He  who 
makes  the  best  cloth  shall  have  the  best  pay.' 
Then  come  English  and  all  manner  of  foreign 
goods  into  the  market  and  spoil  our  trade.  But 
there  is  plainly  but  one  way  of  paying  for  all  im 
ports,  and  that  is  by  exports.  Sugar  and  rice,  pota 
toes  and  grain,  must  pay  for  all  this,  and  there  will 
be  no  more  goods  than  I  give  an  equivalent  for. 


EMERSON  AND   BROOK  FARM.  37 

Then  if  there  be  not  enough,  let  our  own  manu 
facturers  turn  to.  Besides,  commerce  rests  upon 
natural  laws  and  not  upon  human  will.  If  Amer 
ica  is  not  a  productive  garden  for  some  other  land, 
no  tariff  will  make  her  so.  But  suppose  that  our 
philanthropic,  not  national,  government,  is  estab 
lished,  then  the  world  becomes  the  subject  of  a  won 
derful  organized  moral  power.  Or,  again,  Amer 
ica  cannot  stand  upon  such  a  basis  of  humanity, 
and  sinks,  what  then  ?  The  nation  who  conquers 
us  has  pressed  a  sharp  thorn  in  the  side  of  its 
selfish  ambition.  Into  the  heart  of  selfish  Europe 
—  Russia,  England,  France  or  whatever  nation  — 
is  transferred  a  body  of  men  who  are  obeying  eter 
nal  laws  and  not  state  laws,  or  state  laws  only 
so  far  as  they  are  eternal. 

"  We  ask,  in  our  political  relations,  Will  it  ben 
efit  the  state  ?  —  very  seldom,  Is  it  right  ?  But 
the  state  is  not  necessarily  benefited  because  it  has 
a  full  treasury,  and  armies  and  navies,  and  com 
merce  and  trade,  any  more  than  a  man  is  benefited 
by  fine  houses  and  parks.  Let  us  make  a  maxim 
in  politics,  that  what  is  good  for  America  is  good 
for  the  other  nations,  —  for  all,  because  it  is  uni 
versal  and  unselfish.  I  have  a  right  to  wear  fine 
linen,  and  use  Paris  handkerchiefs,  if  I  choose  to 
pay  for  them  at  their  prices,  and  you  have  no 
right  to  make  me  buy  yours  by  making  theirs 
dearer.  I  see  no  necessity  that  American  manu 
facturers  should  flourish  if  they  cannot  do  so 
without  thrusting  our  neighbor  out  of  the  market 


38  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

I  will  have  no  fear  that  God  has  given  us  a  land 
that  cannot  support  itself  against  the  world  in  the 
noblest,  freest  manner,  or,  if  I  see  it  cannot,  I  shall 
also  see  that  it  is  no  proper  home. 

"  '  Be  not  forced  from  your  integrity '  —  so  says 
the  wise  statesman,  who  is  then  a  student  of  the 
divine  government —  'by  the  dishonesty  of  others.' 
The  citizens  of  the  republic,  who  are  willing  to  be 
men  of  the  world  also,  will  be  content  to  sleep  on 
hard  beds  and  forego  luxuries  if  such  means  be 
necessary  to  preserve  the  law  they  cherish.  Now 
we  are  arrayed  against  each  other.  The  great  aim 
is,  which  state  shall  be  highest,  strongest,  wealth 
iest,  —  which  shall  thrust  down  the  other  and  rise 
beyond  it,  —  not  which  shall  lift  the  other  and  then 
nobly  rise  beyond.  The  laws  of  nature  are  as  sim 
ple  for  the  mass  as  for  the  man.  The  life  of  a 
state  should  be  as  sound  and  unincumbered  as  of 
the  individual.  If  we  are  not  ready  for  such  a 
state,  let  us  at  least  say  nothing  of  the  older  gov 
ernments  in  their  disparagement.  We  are  not  the 
experimenters  upon  the  free  order  of  society  that 
the  world  has  flattered  us  into  the  belief  that  we 


CHAPTER  III. 

EUROPEAN   TRAVEL. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1845  Mr.  Curtis  returned  to 
his  father's  house  in  New  York,  and  there  passed 
the  winter.  His  thoughts  were  turning  toward 
Europe,  though  he  spoke  of  them  only  as  "bud 
ding  hopes."  In  a  letter  to  one  of  his  old  friends 
of  the  Brook  Farm  days,  he  describes  his  time  as 
given  to  "  reading  Italian  three  hours  and  German 
about  two,  going  to  my  room  at  nine,  and  coming 
down  to  dinner  at  four."  The  evenings  were 
devoted  to  society,  and  very  frequently  to  music, 
at  home  and  elsewhere.  In  the  spring  he  returned 
for  a  while  to  Concord,  —  "  the  soft,  sunny  spring 
in  the  silent  Concord  meadows,  where  I  sat  in  the 
great  cool  barn  through  the  long,  still  golden  after 
noons  and  read  the  history  of  Rome."  By  sum 
mer  his  plans  were  completed,  and  in  a  note  to  his 
father  in  June,  1846,  he  submitted  a  proposition 
that  the  latter  should  provide  a  letter  of  credit  for 
ten  thousand  francs,  "not  that  I  shall  expect  to 
spend  that  sum  in  two  years,  but  because  it  is  well 
to  have  a  generous  background  to  our  picture." 

He  sailed  from  New  York  early  in  August  on  the 
packet-ship  Nebraska  for  Marseilles,  the  "  magic 


40  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

voyage  over  the  summer  sea  "  lasting  forty-six  days. 
The  first  winter  was  spent  in  Rome,  the  second 
in  Berlin,  the  third  in  Paris,  the  fourth  on  the  Nile 
and  in  Palestine.  He  kept  a  very  full  diary  for 
the  first  two  years,  which  I  have  been  permitted  to 
consult,  and  from  which  some  extracts  will  serve  to 
show  the  manner  of  the  impressions  made  by  this 
wholly  new  experience,  which  was  in  some  ways 
the  richest  of  his  life. 

During  his  journeying  in  Europe,  he  wrote  pretty 
regularly  to  the  "  Courier  and  Enquirer,"  of  which 
Mr.  Henry  J.  Raymond  was  then  the  managing 
editor,  and  to  the  "  Tribune."  These  letters  were 
devoted  mostly  to  public  affairs  and  public  men. 
They  are  good  "  newspaper  work,"  with  no  rhetoric 
or  nonsense  about  them,  —  clear,  straightforward, 
careful  reporting  of  the  higher  sort.  They  show 
keenness  of  observation,  sound,  shrewd  judgment 
of  men  and  things,  and  a  breadth  and  penetration 
which  were  remarkable  in  so  young  and  entirely 
inexperienced  a  writer.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
when  he  reached  Italy  Pius  IX.  was  the  idol  of  the 
Liberals,  and  was  stirring  all  Europe  with  hope  or 
dismay,  as  the  case  might  be,  by  professions  and 
by  proofs  of  confidence  in  the  people.  His  sojourn 
in  Germany  covered  the  troublous  times  of  1847 
and  1848,  and  his  stay  in  Paris  some  of  the  most 
trying  experiences  of  the  second  French  Republic, 
so  that  there  was  much  to  excite  the  generous  sym 
pathy  of  a  young  American,  which  in  his  case  was 
certainly  not  lacking,  and  much  also  to  test  the 


EUROPEAN   TRAVEL.  41 

coolness  of  judgment  and  the  practical  sense  of  a 
journalist,  and  these  also  were  not  wanting.  Al 
though  these  letters  were  necessarily  ephemeral,  I 
think  the  writing  of  them  was  a  fortunate  thing  for 
Mr.  Curtis.  They  imposed  on  him,  with  his  stand 
ard  of  duty,  the  discipline  of  regular  and  system- 
atic  observation  and  statement,  and  gave  him  the 
opportunity  of  practice  in  writing,  with  just  enough 
responsibility  to  steady  his  energies,  and  without 
the  temptations  which  the  attempt  at  "literature" 
presents  to  a  youthful  author.  The  letters,  of  course, 
vanished  promptly;  he  never  even  kept  a  collec 
tion  of  them,  and  they  are  not  likely  to  be  known 
even  to  the  few  survivors  among  his  friends  of  that 
period.  But  it  was  with  satisfaction  that  I  hunted 
down  a  considerable  number  of  them  in  the  yellow 
files  of  the  old  journals,  —  so  strangely  meagre 
and  limited  as  they  now  seem,  —  and  found  them 
distinctly  better  than  most  of  the  work  of  the  same 
sort,  and  showing  evidence  of  the  qualities  that 
were  to  make  of  the  writer  one  of  the  strongest 
journalists  of  his  time,  and  one  whose  influence  was 
to  be  great,  and  in  important  directions  decisive. 

The  first  distinct  impression  of  the  strange  life 
about  him  came  from  the  observances  of  the  Catho 
lic  religion,  so  remote  from  anything  with  which  he 
had  been  familiar  at  home. 

"  Late  in  the  evening,"  he  wrote  at  Genoa,  "  a 
funeral  procession  of  priests  glided  swiftly,  silently 
by  us,  bearing  flashing  torches,  but  themselves 
shrouded  in  their  long,  straight  black  robes,  and  a 


42  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

pointed  black  veil  or  bag  hanging  from  their  broad 
sable  hats  to  the  breast,  so  that  they  seemed  shapes 
moulded  of  the  darkness.  It  was  dreary  and 
mournful,  their  rapid  motion  and  entire  black 
ness.  How  is  the  sweeping  black  of  the  Christian 
a  more  hopeful  emblem  than  the  inverted  torch  of 
the  splendid  old  Grecian  Pagans  ?  The  faint  echo 
of  their  tread  had  scarcely  died  before  a  loud  sing 
ing  arrested  us  in  one  of  the  narrow  by-streets,  and, 
turning  up,  we  found  a  group  of  people  of  every 
age  kneeling  and  standing  and  singing  before  a 
shrine  of  the  Virgin  at  the  street  corner,  dimly 
lighted  by  a  lantern,  and  a  few  withered  flowers 
lying  before  it.  The  vesper  song  was  of  a  few 
long-drawling  notes  sung  in  unison,  and  sounded  so 
forlorn  and  heartless  and  hopeless  in  the  desolate 
streets,  which  looked  like  caverns  fit  for  midnight 
assassinations,  that  it  made  my  heart  ache.  It 
seemed  as  if  all  elasticity  must  be  gone  from  lives 
which  could  be  fed  by  such  means  and  men  as  this 
evening  has  shown  us,  and  yet  the  people  seem  less 
serious  and  more  contented  than  similar  classes  in 
America.  As  we  returned  to  our  hotel,  the  echo  of 
the  vesper  hymns  came  floating  out  of  the  desolate, 
narrow  streets  on  every  side,  —  wild  and  wailing 
and  foreign.  To-night,  more  than  ever,  I  felt  how 
far  away  I  was  from  home." 

In  Florence,  where  he  spent  a  month,  the  notes 
in  his  diary  disclose  a  similar  vein  of  reflection. 
"  The  old  buildings,  and  the  sense  of  pictures  all 
around,  and  the  fine  statues  which  meet  your  eye 


EUROPEAN   TRAVEL.  43 

as  you  walk  in  any  quarter,  make  this  southern 
city  and  its  inhabitants  superficial  motes  upon  the 
antique  grandeur.  I  have  not  met  a  man  in  the 
street  who  did  not  look  sharp  and  mean  and  stupid. 
There  is  no  fine  air  about  them  which  could  possi 
bly  suggest  that  their  ancestry  were  once  the  kings 
of  the  world ;  the  women  have  nothing  romantic  or 
interesting  in  their  faces  or  mien ;  and  one  feels 
very  soon  that  these  are  the  purveyors,  and  persons 
of  convenience,  in  places  to  which  all  that  is  best 
and  noblest  must  be  sympathetically  drawn.  In 
America  there  is  the  charm  of  universal  harmony : 
the  people,  in  character  and  form  and  feature,  cor 
respond  with  the  state  of  every  art;  the  congre 
gation  and  the  worship  are  as  impressive  as  the 
temple ;  the  wise  shrewdness  of  the  merchants  and 
the  general  aspect  of  action  harmonize  with  the 
universal  absence  and  postponement  of  art.  Here 
the  churches  seem  withdrawn  farther  away  into 
the  cold  depths  of  antiquity,  because  the  worship  is 
so  tawdry  and  trivial,  not  in  itself,  but  because  the 
men  who  lead  it  appear  to  feel  it  no  more  than 
their  gorgeous  robes.  One  can  imagine  sometimes 
a  yearning  in  the  broad,  lofty  spaces  of  these  build 
ings,  which  are  themselves  the  stately  children  of 
genius  and  religion,  to  feel  their  heights  and  depths 
once  thrill  with  the  shock  of  an  equal  worship. 
And  yet,  if  one  would  be  harmoniously  satisfied,  he 
may  well  be  so  in  one  of  them,  where,  with  music  and 
incense  and  the  dazzling  splendor  of  robes  of  flow 
ered  gold,  the  Catholic  service  is  performed.  And 


44  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

that  is  the  way  it  should  be  contemplated.  The 
forms  which  are  used  are  of  a  birth  as  religious  and 
sincere  as  the  temples  themselves,  and  there  is  no 
need  of  regarding  the  priests  as  men  at  all." 

As  he  journeyed  towards  Rome,  the  charms  of 
Italy  took  closer  possession  of  him.  "  Italy,"  he 
writes  after  a  week  in  that  city,  "  is  no  fable,  and 
the  wonderful  depth  of  purity  in  the  air  and  blue 
in  the  sky  has  hung  upon  my  eyes  all  this  glorious 
day.  Sometimes  the  sky  is  an  intensely  blue  and 
distant  arch,  and  sometimes  it  melts  in  the  sunlight, 
and  lies  pale  and  rare  and  delicate  upon  the  eye, 
so  that  one  feels  that  he  is  breathing  the  sky  and 
moving  through  it.  I  looked  from  a  lofty  balcony 
at  the  Vatican  upon  broad  gardens,  intensely  green 
with  evergreen  palms  and  orange-trees,  in  which 
gleamed  the  golden  fruit  and  the  rich,  rounding 
tufts  of  Italian  pines ;  and  the  solemn  shaft  of  cy 
press  stood  over  fountains  which  sported  rainbows 
into  the  air,  which  was  silver-clear,  transparent,  and 
on  which  the  outline  of  the  hills  and  foliage  was 
drawn  like  a  flame  against  the  sky  at  night.  Into 
the  air  rose  floating  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  which 
is  not  a  nucleus  of  the  city,  like  the  Duomo  at 
Florence,  but  a  crown  more  imposing  as  one  is  far 
ther  removed." 

In  Rome  again,  it  was  the  church  that  first  im 
pressed  him  strongly.  Of  the  music  at  St.  Peter's, 
he  writes  :  — 

"  Then  from  the  high  choir  at  the  opposite  side 
of  the  church  and  far  over  our  heads  came  swim- 


EUROPEAN  TRAVEL.  45 

ming  down  the  tremulous  delicacy  of  the  'nuns' 
chant,'  like  voices  from  heaven.  The  sound  per 
vaded  the  dim  air  of  the  church  like  a  radiance 
too  subtle  to  be  seen,  but  warming  and  ennobling 
the  soul  with  a  sense  of  celestial  splendor.  It  was 
also  of  the  extremest  melancholy — a  hymn  so  sad 
that  all  the  bright  days  and  hopes  of  life  seemed 
then  no  more  than  the  few  keen  stars  at  night  and 
as  powerless  as  they  upon  the  darkness.  It  was  a 
service  all  incense  and  music,  upon  which  daylight 
seemed  not  bold  enough  to  obtrude,  and  exhaling 
a  worship  like  the  delicatest  fragrance  of  flowers." 

He  mentions  the  Pope,  whom  he  saw  quite  fre 
quently,  always  with  sympathy,  as  in  the  follow 
ing  description  of  the  festival  of  the  Eve  of  St. 
John's :  — 

"  Last  night  at  the  Pope's  Palace  upon  the  Pi 
azza  Cavallo  upon  the  Quirintll  Hill,  we  saw  a  rare 
and  beautiful  spectacle.  It  was  the  Eve  of  St. 
John's  festival,  whose  name  the  Pope  bears.  There 
fore  at  dusk  crowds  began  to  assemble  upon  the 
hill,  which  in  front  of  the  palace  is  very  spacious, 
looking  toward  the  west  over  the  city  and  its  crown 
of  St.  Peter's  dome,  and  surrounded  only  with 
stately  palaces.  In  the  centre  of  the  hill  is  a  sim 
ple,  ample  fountain  whose  water  rises  from  a  broad 
vase  into  which  it  falls  again,  dripping  enough  over 
the  edge  to  girt  the  urn  with  a  shining  silver  fringe. 
Over  this  fountain  an  Egyptian  obelisk  points 
steadily  upward  in  the  blue  air,  at  whose  base  two 
noble  figures  of  Grecian  youths  restrain  two  rear- 


46  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

ing  horses,  the  work,  it  is  said,  of  Phidias  and  Prax 
iteles.  The  spire,  its  centre,  its  sides  and  its  pros 
pect  are  all  worthy,  and  here  in  the  early  evening 
after  the  Ave  Maria  the  people  assembled.  Col 
ored  fires  flashed  upon  the  palaces  from  an  altar  of 
Liberty,  emblematic  of  the  spirit  which  rules  the 
country  and  which  the  people  hail  and  celebrate  on 
every  occasion.  The  clouds  were  heavy  and  a  flash 
of  lightning  swept  at  intervals  a  broad  light  over 
all ;  a  slight  shower  passed,  at  which  thousands  of 
umbrellas  made  a  smooth  billowy  surface  for  the 
human  sea.  But  when  the  procession  approached 
with  torches  and  music,  the  rain  ceased,  the  um 
brellas  fell,  the  torches  crowded  into  the  crowd; 
from  the  people  rang  a  long,  heaven-piercing  shout, 
from  the  balconies  and  palaces  streamed  fires  of 
various  splendor  until  a  new  day  shone  steadily 
over  the  multitude,  touching  the  statues  into  life, 
and  in  the  midst  of  it,  the  doors  of  an  upper  bal 
cony  were  thrown  open  and,  preceded  by  the  cross, 
which  always  precedes  him  on  public  occasions, 
and  by  four  huge  wax  torches,  the  Pope  came  for 
ward  above  the  ringing  shouts  and  in  the  steady 
splendor  and  bowed  his  head  to  the  railing  of  the 
balcony.  Then  came  a  moment  of  stillness ;  the 
crowd  was  hushed  as  a  sleeping  child,  and  the  Pope 
raised  his  hands,  breathed  a  short  prayer,  and 
turning  to  the  crowd  gave  his  blessing  and  retired. 
Then  came  the  shouts  again  and  the  music  and 
new  rockets  and  candles  —  until  in  a  few  moments 
all  was  still  again,  but  it  was  a  sight  rare  and  im- 


EUROPEAN  TRAVEL.  47 

pressive.  The  vast  crowd  drawn  alone  by  rever 
ence  and  respect  to  their  chief — and  he  responding 
to  their  call  with  no  appeal  to  passion  or  pride,  but 
with  a  prayer  and  his  blessing.  In  no  other  country 
could  that  be  seen.  In  no  other  country  could  the 
vast  sentiment  inspired  by  a  mass  of  people  obey 
ing  a  noble  instinct  be  so  sublimely  crowned.  It 
was  perfect.  It  was  a  scene  for  the  Arcadia  of  a 
poet  —  or  the  paradise  of  a  wise  Christian." 
Here  is  a  trace  of  a  different  sentiment :  — 
"Saturday,  October  31,  1846.  To-day  I  went 
to  the  graves  of  Shelley  and  Keats,  who  lie  in  a 
green,  sequestered  spot  under  the  walls  of  old 
Rome,  where  the  sunlight  lingers  long  and  where 
in  the  sweet  society  of  roses  whose  bloom  does  not 
wither,  they  sleep  always  a  summer  sleep.  Shake 
speare  sang  long  ago  Shelley's  epitaph :  — 

1  Nothing  of  him  that  doth  fade, 
But  doth  suffer  a  sea  change 
Into  something  rich  and  strange.' 

And  Keats  sighed  his  upon  his  death  bed :  — 

'  Here  lies  one  whose  name  was  writ  in  water.' 

Fate  is  no  less  delicate  than  stern,  which  brought 
Keats  from  his  cold  north  to  lie  in  an  Italian  grave, 
and  which,  sucking  the  sweet  breath  of  Shelley  in 
a  stormy  night  at  sea,  laid  his  ashes  and  unburned 
heart  in  the  spot  whose  beauty,  he  said,  might 
make  one  in  love  with  death.  Yet,  by  these  graves 
too,  one  feels  the  grimness  of  fate  which  strikes  so 
suddenly  into  silence  the  lips  which  heaven  seems 


48  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

to  yearn  to  pass  in  music.  The  sun  was  setting 
as  we  came  away,  after  one  of  the  aerially  soft  days 
with  which  our  imaginations  endow  Italy.  The 
rich  golden  flood  streamed  through  the  arches  of 
the  Coliseum,  but  could  not  unbend  the  stern  grav 
ity  of  its  decay.  It  looked  cold  and  still,  the  image 
of  the  destiny  which  consumes  it." 

And  here  is  a  note  made  on  the  eve  of  his  de 
parture  from  Rome. 

"  Thus  far  I  find  that  my  European  life  has 
taught  me  a  cosmopolitanism  which  I  could  never 
have  learned  at  home.  I  have  read  very  few  books 
this  winter  and  have  been  very  little  at  home,  but 
I  have  been  unsphered  in  the  society  of  so  many 
persons  and  I  have  begun  to  realize  how  good 
every  sphere  is,  although  so  different  from  my  own. 
When  we  are  children  we  fancy  the  horizon  is  the 
end  of  the  world,  but  the  man  who  lives  just  beyond 
the  edge  sees  grand  mountains  and  seas  of  which 
we  do  not  dream,  and  if  we  are  wedded  to  our 
quiet  groves  and  streams  by  long  years  of  intimacy 
and  habit,  when  by  chance  we  pass  the  boundary, 
we  shall  not  enjoy  the  magnificence,  and  so  lose  the 
various  splendor  of  the  world." 

Leaving  Rome  in  mid-April,  Curtis  passed  a 
month  or  more  in  Naples  and  its  neighborhood,  an 
other  in  Florence,  a  third  in  Venice,  a  few  weeks' 
leisurely  wandering  in  northern  Italy,  and  crossing 
the  Alps  from  Como,  settled  in  Berlin  for  the  win 
ter.  The  next  spring  opened  at  the  close  of  April 
with  a  week  in  "  Saxon  Switzerland  "  on  foot,  and 


EUROPEAN  TRAVEL.  49 

the  summer  was  given  to  journeyings  through 
Austria  and  Hungary,  back  to  the  Rhine,  again 
crossing  the  Alps  and  recrossing  to  the  Geneva 
country ;  then  by  a  wide  detour  into  Germany,  Paris 
was  reached,  where  the  winter  of  1848-49  was 
passed.  I  have,  perhaps,  given  enough  from  the 
diary  to  show  the  spirit  of  this  experience.  It  was 
a  varied  one,  with  much  intense  enjoyment,  numer 
ous  interesting  acquaintances,  some  valuable  friends 
won  and  to  be  kept,  and  a  steady  mental  develop 
ment  of  which  the  diary  shows  mostly  the  soberer 
side.  The  record  he  made,  and  which,  I  think,  he 
had  some  intention  of  publishing,  is  singularly  void 
of  personal  allusions  either  to  himself  or  to  his 
companions.  It  gives  nothing  as  to  the  comfort  or 
discomfort  of  the  inns,  and  little  as  to  the  convey 
ances.  A  larger  part  is  given  to  the  scenery  than 
to  any  other  one  thing,  and  it  is  plain  how  much  he 
was  gaining  in  that  deep  and  rich  knowledge  of 
nature  that  counted  so  greatly  in  his  subsequent 
work.  He  saw  many  pictures,  knew  many  artists 
of  various  races,  and  had  obviously  a  keen  enjoy 
ment  of  their  works.  But  though,  in  a  very  im 
portant  sense,  Ke  was  by  mental  gift  a  true  artist, 
I  do  not  think  he  ever  got  far,  or  ever  cared  to  get 
very  far,  into  the  mysteries  of  the  craft.  The  sub 
ject,  the  sentiment  and  the  general  impression  of 
the  color  and  form  remained  with  him,  but  of  the 
processes  and  their  details,  of  the  elements  of  the 
war  that  was  then  raging  still  between  the  Roman 
ticists  and  the  Classicists,  or  the  one  on  which  the 


50  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

pre-Kaphaelites  were  entering,  I  find  no  hint.  He 
must  have  encountered  these  things  in  the  society 
with  which  he  was  intimate,  but  I  imagine  that 
they  left  him  indifferent.  Nor  is  there  much  sign 
of  the  studies  in  which  he  really  engaged  with  en 
ergy  and  must  have  pursued  with  some  system.  He 
seems  to  have  been  at  this  time,  as  he  was  in  later 
life,  the  very  reverse  of  what  we  usually  understand 
by  a  man  of  books,  still  more  of  a  bookish  man. 
In  his  diary  he  very  rarely  quotes  poetry,  and  in 
the  homes  of  Dante  and  Petrarch,  of  Goethe,  of 
Voltaire,  their  names  come  only  incidentally  to  his 
pen.  The  places  as  they  were,  the  landscape  in 
which  they  were  set,  the  life  he  found  in  them  are 
what  he  describes.  The  people  did  interest  him 
greatly  as  persons,  as  races,  as  political  communi 
ties.  He  was  in  Italy,  in  Germany,  and  in  Austria 
at  the  time  when  the  ferments  which  reached  their 
height  in  1848  were  general.  He  saw  the  Milanese 
"  rise  "  and  saw  them  again  when  their  hopes  were 
crushed.  He  was  in  Hungary  on  the  eve  of  the 
outbreak  that  brought  Kossuth,  later,  to  the  United 
States.  ,  All  these  events  awakened  interest  of  the 
keenest,  and  sympathy,  but  it  was  a  very  calm 
judgment  that  he  passed  upon  them.  He  was  al 
ways  struck  by  the  contrast  between  the  moods  and 
manners  he  saw  and  those  to  which  he  was  used  at 
home.  The  theatrical  element,  and  the  rhetorical, 
while  they  amused  him,  made  him  distrustful.  In 
Europe,  as  at  Brook  Farm,  he  never  lacked  the  sav 
ing  sense  of  humor,  and  the  sobriety,  the  saneness 


EUROPEAN  TRAVEL.  51 

of  his  general  view  were  remarkable.  There  was 
no  cynical  affectation  in  it,  not  a  trace  of  indiffer 
ence,  nor  any  pride,  personal  or  national,  but  al 
ways  the  quiet  appreciation  of  the  extent  and  com 
plexity  of  anything  like  a  national  movement,  and 
of  the  need  of  breadth  and  steadiness  and  common 
sense. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   LITERARY   FIELD. 

MR.  CURTIS'S  literary  career  began  in  1851,  on 
his  return  from  Europe  and  the  East,  with  the 
publication  of  the  Howadji  books.  It  was  a  period 
of  marked  mental  activity  in  the  United  States, 
when  reputations  that  were  to  become  world-wide 
were  still  making,  and  when  only  two  or  three 
of  the  now  widely  famed  writers  had  yet  achieved 
an  established  name  at  home,  and  only  one,  the 
veteran  Washington  Irving,  could  be  said  to  be 
much  known  abroad.  The  habitat  of  what  there 
was  of  American  literature  was  geographically 
very  limited.  Nearly  all  the  writers  of  the  day 
were  New  Englanders  by  residence,  or,  as  was  Mr. 
Curtis,  by  descent.  A  smaller  group  of  very 
active  minds  centred  in  New  York,  and  there 
were  scattered  workers  here  and  there  along  the 
Atlantic  Coast.  But  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
country,  so  far  as  it  was  expressed  in  books,  or 
even  in  newspapers,  was  still  east  of  the  Allegha- 
nies  and  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  slope.  The 
magazine  as  we  know  it,  the  roomy  and  hospitable, 
stimulating  and  nourishing  home  of  writing  of 
every  sort,  inviting  the  writer  who  has  anything 


THE  LITERARY  FIELD.  53 

worth  saying  to  address  all  the  readers  of  the 
land  —  and  of  other  lands  —  worth  having,  did  not 
exist,  though  the  "  North  American  Review  "  in 
Boston  and  the  "  Knickerbocker  "  and  "  Harper's  " 
in  New  York  had  made  notable  and  valuable  begin 
nings.  Within  what  now  seems  the  restricted  soci 
ety  of  the  opening  of  the  second  half  of  the  century 
there  was,  as  I  have  said,  marked  mental  activity 
in  a  considerable  variety  of  directions,  much  of  it 
wayward,  eager,  curious,  some  of  it  grotesque, 
much  of  it  shallow,  affected,  and  of  no  importance, 
but  much  of  it  also  serious,  pure,  lofty,  and,  as 
the  event  has  proved,  of.  lasting  influence.  Curi 
ously  enough  in  this  confused  and  unformed  so 
ciety  of  writers  the  most  conspicuous  and  eminent, 
though  certainly  not  the  most  representative,  was 
Washington  Irving,  as  completely  a  man  of  letters, 
and  yet  distinctly  of  his  own  time,  as  Addison. 
He  was  the  Dean  of  the  American  literary  body, 
being,  in  1851,  sixty-eight,  with  the  "Knicker 
bocker's  History  of  New  York,"  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  of  his  works,  more  than  forty  years 
in  the  past  and  the  "  Sketch  Book  "  and  "  Brace- 
bridge  Hall "  but  ten  years  nearer.  Substantially 
all  his  work  was  done,  and  the  "Life  of  Wash 
ington  "  and  "  Wolfert's  Roost "  alone  awaited 
publication.  It  is  a  pleasant  thing  to  note  that 
nearly  forty  years  later  Mr.  Curtis's  Monograph  on 
Irving  became  one  of  the  most  valued  publications 
of  the  Grolier  Club  of  New  York,  and  remains 
a  graceful  and  affectionate  tribute  to  qualities  oi 


54  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

mind  and  character,  some  of  which  the  writer  richly 
shared  with  the  beloved  subject  of  the  Essay.  It 
may  be  added  that  Mr.  Curtis's  correspondence 
discloses  a  personal  intercourse  with  Irving  of  a 
sympathetic  if  not  intimate  nature  which  must 
have  had  its  influence. 

At  this  time,  Hawthorne  was  in  the  prime  of 
manhood,  forty-seven  years  of  age,  but  was  known 
chiefly  as  a  writer  of  sketches  of  singular  and 
subtle  charm.  The  two  volumes  of  "  Twice-told 
Tales  "  had  been  published  in  1837  and  1845,  and 
the  "  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse  "  in  1846.  "  The 
Scarlet  Letter "  had  appeared  the  year  before, 
but  the  author  was  still  a  self-distrustful,  almost 
gloomy  half-recluse,  hardly  comprehending  the  po 
sition  which  that  most  original  of  American  books 
has  assured  to  him.  With  Hawthorne,  Mr.  Curtis 
had  had  a  certain  degree  of  friendly  relation  at 
Brook  Farm  and  at  Concord,  and  I  like  to  think 
that  his  remote  and  slightly  cynical  attitude  of 
mind  was  felt  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  "trans 
cendental  "  tendencies  of  the  other  companions 
of  that  period,  and  may  have  counted  in  main 
taining  the  sanity  of  spirit  with  which  the  youth 
came  from  those  stimulating  but  not  entirely  whole 
some  associations.  The  purely  literary  influence 
of  Hawthorne  it  is  not  easy  to  trace,  especially  in 
Mr.  Curtis's  earlier  work.  But  I  cannot  doubt 
that  the  sobriety,  lucidity  and  restraint  of  expres 
sion  in  a  writer  of  such  powerful  and  penetrating 
imagination,  united  with  the  early  personal  inter- 


THE   LITERARY  FIELD.  55 

course,  aided  in  the  development  of  that  later 
style  which  in  the  "  Easy  Chair  "  and  in  portions 
of  "  Prue  and  I "  was  to  become  not  less  delight 
ful  than  that  of  the  tenant  of  the  "  Old  Manse." 
Of  other  novelists  and  essayists  Fenimore  Cooper^ 
the  most  prolific  and  widely  known,  was  just  pass 
ing  away ;  Miss  Sedgwick  and  Mrs.  Sigourney, 
greatly  read,  though  not  destined  to  a  lasting  fame, 
had  closed  their  literary  labors ;  Herman  Melville, 
R.  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Donald  G.  Mitchell,  Bayard 
Taylor,  were  of  Mr.  Curtis's  own  age,  or  nearly  so, 
and  some  of  them  of  his  own  circle.  Nathaniel  P. 
Willis,  in  literature,  as  in  life,  claiming  the  func 
tion  of  arbiter  elegantiarum,  and  so  far  recognized 
as  such  that  I  find  a  correspondent  naively  flatter 
ing  Curtis  with  the  opinion  that  he  may  attain  to 
Willis's  level,  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  vogue. 
More  brilliant,  and  with  a  larger  number  whose 
fame  was  to  be  permanent  among  the  writers  of 
that  day,  were  the  poets.  Bryant  at  the  age  of 
fifty-seven  was  the  oldest,  and  had  already  achieved 
the  hold  on  the  future  which  was  sustained  if  not 
strengthened  by  his  later  work.  In  1851,  he  was 
most  prominent  as  a  journalist  of  deep  conviction 
and  of  rare  vigor  and  purity  of  style.  Emerson's 
poetry  was  accepted,  with  his  prose,  as  an  expres 
sion  of  lofty  and  often  mystical  thought,  and  was 
as  yet  more  the  object  of  a  limited  cult  than  the 
general  delight  that  it  has  since  become.  Whit- 
tier's  reputation  also  was  high  with  a  somewhat 
limited  class,  but  had  not  gained  general  recogni- 


56  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

tion.  Longfellow  was  already  the  most  read  and 
most  widely  loved  of  American  poets.  Lowell,  but 
five  years  the  senior  of  Curtis,  was  at  the  height 
of  the  peculiar  popularity  won  by  the  "  Fable  for 
Critics "  and,  in  a  different  vein,  "  The  Biglow 
Papers."  He  had  fairly  thrown  down  the  gauntlet 
in  the  long  fight  with  slavery,  and,  incredible  as  it 
now  seems,  had  perceptibly  clouded  his  prospects 
of  advancement  with  those  who  were  supposed  to 
distribute  the  prizes  of  literary  effort.  Curtis, 
who  was  to  become  one  of  his  closest  friends,  and 
who  was  later  to  join  him  in  the  memorable  con 
test  with  slavery,  was  as  yet  but  an  admirer  of  his 
varied  but  irregularly  developed  genius.  Holmes, 
who  at  twenty-two,  had  given  the  country  one  of 
the  most  spirited  of  patriotic  poems,  "  Old  Iron 
sides,"  was  'known  chiefly  as  a  Harvard  profes 
sor,  with  a  rare  gift  for  "  occasional "  verse.  The 
sisters,  Alice  and  Phoebe  Cary,  published  their 
first  volume  of  poems  in  the  same  year  with  the 
"  Nile  Notes."  Buchanan  Read  and  Stoddard 
had  each  one  volume  of  poems  to  his  credit.  John 
G.  Saxe's  little  volume,  revealing  one  of  the  bright 
est  and  lightest  of  American  humorists  in  verse, 
was  published  in  1850. 

It  remains  to  mention  that  in  history,  Prescott 
was  the  only  writer  who  had  achieved  very  much. 
His  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  " Conquest  of  Mex 
ico,"  and  "  Conquest  of  Peru,"  were,  at  that  time, 
the  chief  American  histories,  Bancroft  had  issued 
but  three  volumes  of  his  great  work.  Hildreth'a 


THE  LITERARY  FIELD.  57 

was  in  course  of  publication.  Motley  was  hardly 
decided  as  to  his  own  course  and  was  known  only 
as  the  author  of  "  Morton's  Hope,"  and  "  Merry 
Mount,"  which  one  hardly  thinks  ol  now  in  connec 
tion  with  his  name. 

It  is  not  easy  in  these  closing  days  of  the  cen 
tury,  when  Mr.  Curtis's  name  is  more  or  less 
closely  associated  with  the  group  of  New  England 
writers  whose  names  are  so  generally  honored  and 
whose  work  has  become  an  integral  part  and  a 
large  part  of  the  intellectual  inheritance  of  edu 
cated  Americans,  clearly  to  imagine  how  different 
from  that  which  we  now  recognize  was  the  influ 
ence  they  were  able  to  exert  upon  him  at  the  open 
ing  of  his  career.  It  is  worth  while  to  dwell  with 
some  emphasis  upon  the  fact  that  he  was  himself 
one  of  the  builders  of  American  literature,  and  that 
when  he  began  to  write,  the  conditions  by  which  he 
was  surrounded  were  such  as  necessarily  to  throw 
him  upon  his  own  resources.  What  he  brought  to 
the  structure  was  his  own  material,  fashioned  by 
himself.  It  was  not  and  could  not  be  borrowed 
from  those  who  had  gone  before  him,  and  if  it  was 
a  worthy  and  a  substantial  contribution,  as,  with 
out  exaggerating  its  importance,  I  believe  that  it 
was,  it  must  be  remembered  that  what  there  was  of 
it  was  original.  I  think  that  it  was  so  in  style  as 
well  as  in  matter,  and  it  is  in  the  hope  of  bringing 
that  fact  more  definitely  to  the  minds  of  my  readers 
that  I  have  given  this  brief,  but  I  hope  fairly  accu 
rate,  review  of  the  literary  field  in  1851. 


58  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS 

On  the  other  hand,  given  a  mind  of  native  vigor 
and  of  genuine  sensitiveness,  given  healthy  aspira 
tions  toward  mental  achievement,  given  a  point  of 
view  of  rational  independence  and  a  character  of 
sound  substance  and  of  firm  as  well  as  fine  texture, 
and  it  was  a  good  thing  to  begin  near  the  begin 
ning,  to  be  of  the  pioneers,  to  share  in  youth  the 
common  and  powerful  impulse  of  a  young  literary 
society,  to  be  more  conscious  of  the  immensity  of 
the  future  than  of  that  of  the  past,  and  to  feel  that 
what  one  shall  succeed  in  accomplishing  may  have 
a  steadily  widening  influence  upon  the  maturing 
national  mind.  These  were  the  advantages  of  one 
whose  work  was  begun  in  the  middle  of  the  nine 
teenth  century  in  our  country.  Mr.  Curtis  felt 
them,  and  I  think  he  made  the  most  of  them. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   HOWADJI   BOOKS. 

MR.  CURTIS  returned  from  Europe  in  1850  with 
a  definite  resolve  to  undertake  the  career  of  an 
author.  His  first  work,  "Nile  Notes  of  a  How- 
adji,"  was  published  the  following  spring,  when  he 
had  just  entered  his  twenty-seventh  year.  "  To 
day,"  he  wrote  from  Providence  to  a  friend  in 
Cambridge,  "will  bring  me  the  Nile  Notes  as  a 
book,  I  suppose,  —  but  I  cannot  have  the  proper 
emotions.  It  seems  all  very  natural,  very  much  as 
it  seems  to  a  young  papa,  who  beholds  a  redness 
in  a  white  blanket,  and  is  told  that  it  is  his  heir  ; 
or  perhaps  even  more  as  a  sensible  tree  feels  when 
it  sees  one  of  its  fruits  fallen  separate  upon  the 
ground  —  My  hand  trembles  (as  I  speak  of  no 
emotion)  for  this  moment  my  book  is  placed  in  my 
hand  —  even  as  I  wrote  '  ground  '  it  arrived.  You 
will  surely  have  received  it  before  you  read  this, 
Ah !  speak  it  fair  !  my  first  born,  my  only  child  !  " 
The  book  was  very  kindly  received  by  the  news 
papers,  though  the  notices  of  it  which  I  have  come 
upon  do  not  make  that  fact  very  conclusive  as  to 
its  merit,  for  most  of  them  are  curiously  flat  and 
perfunctory.  More  significant  was  the  sale  of 


60  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

edition  of  twenty-five  hundred  copies  within  the 
first  half  year.  The  author  himself  said,  in  April, 
in  his  straightforward  way :  "  The  Nile  Notes  I 
cannot  hesitate  to  call  successful,  but  not  a  great 
hit."  John  Dwight,  in  the  "  Commonwealth  "  of 
Boston,  spoke  in  a  tone  at  once  flattering  and  dis 
criminating.  E.  P.  Whipple,  one  of  the  oracles 
of  the  day,  declares  of  it  that  he  had  "  never  be 
fore  felt  the  East."  In  referring  to  some  pleasant 
opinions  he  had  heard,  Mr.  Curtis  wrote  :  "  In  his 
letter  Mons.  Aubepine  (Hawthorne)  tells  another 
twice-told  tale.  But  how  sweeter  so  !  How  like 
Fame,  when  a  famous  man  applauds  and  says,  4 1 
see  now  that  you  are  forever  an  author !  ' " '  Bent- 
ley  of  London  published  the  book  under  the  title 
of  "Nile  Notes  of  a  Traveler,"  apparently  afraid 
to  trust  the  English  reader  with  the  Arabic  equi 
valent,  Howadji.  For  this  edition  the  publisher 
paid  the  sum  of  five  guineas,  —  a  curiously  early 
example  of  the  necessity  for  international  copy 
right.  It  was  explained  that  if  the  book  "  took " 
it  would  immediately  be  printed  for  a  shilling  for 
all  the  railway  stations,  while  Bentley  printed  it 
for  ten  shillings  and  sixpence.  The  English  press 
was  extremely  cordial.  The  London  "  Daily  News," 
the  "  Weekly  News  "  (a  wholly  different  paper) 
the  "Athenaeum,"  the  "  Literary  Gazette  "  and  the 
"  Spectator  "  all  noticed  the  book,  and  nearly  all 
with  praise.  "  Leigh  Hunt,"  wrote  Curtis,  "  speaks 
of  it  in  his  22d  March  number.  He  likes  it  and 
praise?  it,  but  in  an  amusing  way.  He  says  some- 


THE  HOW  AD  J I  BOOKS.  61 

thing  about  the  Author's  meaning  to  outdo  Long 
fellow's  Hyperion  ! !  and  of  traces  of  D'Israeli,  Em 
erson,  Eothen,  and  I  know  not  how  many  more. 
But  he  so  evidently  likes  it  that  the  most  morbidly 
vain  author  would  be  more  amused  than  annoyed 
at  his  notice." 

The  book  did  not  escape  censure.  "May  an 
immoral  Howadji,"  wrote  the  author  to  a  friend, 
"dine  with  you  on  Wednesday?"  This  was  the 
smile  that  would  hide  pain.  Mr.  Curtis  was  deeply 
wounded  by  some  of  the  comments  on  his  work. 
His  letters  of  this  date,  though  full  of  expressions 
of  grateful  surprise  at  the  praise  bestowed  upon 
him,  and  of  simple-hearted,  modest  joy  at  his  suc 
cess,  contain  other  expressions  of  hot  and  passion 
ate  indignation  for  those  who  had  impugned  the 
purity  of  his  purpose.  The  anger  was  natural; 
with  regard  to  some,  it  was  just ;  but  on  the  whole, 
it  was  undue.  That  Mr.  Curtis's  mind  in  youth  as 
in  his  riper  age  was  pure,  no  one  who  knew  him 
could  doubt.  It  did  not  necessarily  follow  that 
those  who  did  not  and  could  not  see  as  he  saw, 
were  not  pure.  It  was  the  forever-recurring  dis 
pute  that  art  provokes  from  generation  to  genera 
tion.  Mr.  Curtis  was,  in  a  great  part  of  his  na 
ture,  in  some  of  the  most  attractive  and  engaging 
manifestations  of  his  nature,  an  artist.  With 
out  offense  and  with  immaculate  devotion,  he  made 
some  of  his  studies  from  life.  When  his  pictures 
came  from  his  easel,  he  did  not  find  it  requisite  to 
drape  completely  the  beauty  he  had  recognized  and 


62  GEORGE    WILL T AM   CURTIS. 

rejoiced  in.  One  of  his  best  loved  artists  in  the 
long,  happy  days  in  the  Venetian  galleries,  before 
he  crossed  the  Mediterranean  to  Cairo,  was  Cor- 
reggio.  It  never  occurred  to  him,  the  boy  fresh- 
hearted  from  the  cool  walks  of  the  Concord  Aca 
deme,  that  the  women  of  Correggio  were  shocking 
to  look  upon.  If  one  cares  to  re-read,  forty  years 
after,  the  chapters  through  which  dance  Kusheek 
Arnem  and  the  dove  Xenobi,  and  remember  that 
they  flowed  from  the  pen,  almost  untried,  of  a  youth 
of  twenty-six,  he  will  find  readily  what  lay  open  to 
criticism  on  the  score  of  taste  and  might  honestly 
be  disapproved  as  the  too  vivid  presentation  of  a 
sensuous  scene.  But  if  he  do  not  also  find  a  grave 
and  noble  feeling  under  the  rich  play  of  color,  a 
sense  of  the  pathos  and  the  tragedy  that  make 
the  sombre  background  of  a  scene  at  once  so  allur 
ing  and  so  disquieting,  if  there  shall  not  remain 
with  him  the  impression  of  singular  elevation  and 
breadth  of  view  in  this  young  writer,  then,  while 
we  may  not  dismiss  him  with  the  contempt  the 
young  writer  showed  for  some  of  his  critics,  we 
may  be  permitted  at  least  to  differ  from  him. 

On  this  particular  point,  I  shall  let  Mr.  Curtis 
speak  for  himself,  in  the  following  manly  letter  to 
his  father  written  a  few  days  after  the  publication 
of  the  book  :  — 

PROVIDENCE,  March  15,  '51. 

My  DEAR  FATHER,  —  When  I  received 's 

first  letter  I  was  amused  but  not  surprised.     But 


THE   HOWADJI  BOOKS.  63 

when  he  wrote  that  you  were  so  shocked  with  my 
book,  I  was  extremely  grieved,  and  so  must  always 
be  —  yet  always  with  a  conscience  Void  of  offense. 
My  aim  in  the  book  was  such  that  I  was  unwilling 
you  should  see  the  manuscript  because  I  knew  that 
we  should  differ  so  essentially  that  your  displeas 
ure  might  only  be  prolonged.  But  when  I  saw  that 
Mr.  Raymond,  whom  you  regard  so  highly  and  who 
has  no  personal  feeling  for  me,  had  selected  the 
exceptional  chapter  for  the  Magazine,  I  supposed 
that  I  had  overrated  the  nervousness  of  the  gen 
eral  mind,  and  that  the  edict  which  cannot  but 
seem  to  me  contemptible  —  of  immorality,  or  what 
ever  it  is  —  would  not  be  passed. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  was  not  at  home  for  two  rea 
sons,  and  glad  for  a  good  many  that  I  was  away 
—  I  was  sorry  that  I  had  not  ordered  a  copy  sent 
to  you  immediately,  which,  however,  I  had  not  done 
for  any  one  —  having  only  made  a  list  of  sundry 
persons  connected  with  journals  and  one  or  two 
friends  in  distant  parts  of  the  country.  Then  I 
was  sorry  that  my  absence  seemed  to  indicate  that 
I  had  run  away  from  a  bad  impression.  However, 
that  is  nothing,  —  I  want  to  say  precisely  how  the 

thing  is  —  and  am  very  sorry  that should  talk 

about  obfuscated  moral  sense. 

When  I  was  in  Egypt  I  felt  that  the  picture 
of  impressions  there  had  never  been  painted. 
Travelers  have  been  either  theorists  and  philoso 
phers  or  young  men  with  more  money  than  brains, 
or  professional  travelers.  In  no  book  of  any  of 


64  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

them  was  the  essentially  sensuous,  luxurious,  lan 
guid  and  sense-satisfied  spirit  of  Eastern  life  as 
it  appears  to  the  traveller  represented.  I  aimed 
to  do  that.  Here  and  in  every  newspaper  notice 
(some  dozen)  that  I  have  seen  I  find  that  I  have 
achieved  that  success,  and  I  find  the  same  thing 
in  all  this  outcry  of  immorality  or  indecency,  or 
whatever  it  is,  and  which  comes  from  New  York 
alone.  Now,  the  moral  condemnation  of  ladies 
and  gentlemen  who  would  sell  any  daughter  to  any 
man,  for  a  sufficient  fortune,  I  do  not  very  highly 
esteem  —  and  that  is  the  character  of  some,  who, 
I  hear,  are  most  eloquent  against  my  book.  The 
moral  sense  of  New  York  in  general  is  so  vitiated 
that  I  care  for  it  in  general  no  more  than  for  such 
particular  condemnations.  My  only  sorrow  is  that 
you  should  necessarily  condemn  the  book,  and  I 
am  sorry,  because  it  ought  not  to  be  condemned ! 
The  dancing  girls  occupy  no  more  space  in  the 
book  than  they  occupied  in  the  voyage,  and  they 
must  always  occupy  a  large  space  because  they  are 
the  life  and  the  most  characteristically  Eastern 
life  of  the  river.  You  of  course  will  feel  that  the 
whole  thing  might  be  omitted,  but  it  would  not  be 
the  same  book,  it  would  not  be  my  book,  and  it 
would  not  in  that  case  give  the  true  picture  of 
the  Egyptian  life. 

It  is  only  the  affected  and  self-conscious  exagger^ 
ation  of  the  moral  sense  that  could  be  so  alarmed  — 
I  am  angrier  than  I  am  vexed.  The  very  brilliance 
of  the  coloring  shows  that  it  is  not  prurient,  but 
poetic. 


THE  HOWADJI  BOOKS.  65 

However,  there  is  no  end  of  such  talk.  I  have 
written,  dear  father,  that  you  may  know  that  I  de 
plore  your  disappointment,  while  I  feel  that  it  was 
unavoidable.  Had  I  written  a  book  to  please  you, 
I  would  not  have  published  it  because  it  would  not 
have  pleased  myself;  and  while  I  confess  certain 
expressions  are  too  broad  and  might  well  be  al 
tered,  the  essential  spirit  of  the  book  is  precisely 
what  I  wish  it.  I  would  not  have  it  toned  down, 
for  I  toned  it  up  intentionally.  My  objections  are 
not  moral  but  literary. 

The  feeling  that  you  have  is,  I  am  sure,  more 
personal  to  me  than  real  to  yourself.  If  the  book 
had  been  anybody's  else,  I  doubt  if  you  could 
have  been  shocked.  But  with  your  natural  inter 
est  in  me  and  equally  natural  desire  that  I  should 
favorably  impress  every  one,  you  were  necessarily 
grieved  by  what  was  suspicious  to  them,  not  re 
garding  if  it  ought  to  be,  but  simply  if  it  was  so 
to  them. 

I  never  could  regret  having  written  the  book. 
If  I  should  differ  in  my  nature  and  character  a 
score  of  years  hence,  I  shall  be  no  more  sorry  than 
I  am  that  I  once  wore  frocks,  —  and  I  can  say  so  ab 
solutely  because,  as  I  began,  my  conscience  is  void 
of  offense.  This  outcry  seems  simply  ludicrous. 
Your  affectionate  son, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

The  "Nile  Notes  "  and  the  "  Howadji  in  Syria  " 
which  followed  in  the  next  year,  were  the  first 


66  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

product  of  a  mind  of  extraordinary  sensitiveness, 
of  much  strength,  released  rather  suddenly  from 
associations  and  habits  of  thought  which,  sustained 
with  entire  sincerity,  had  exercised  a  restraint  of 
which  the  writer  may  have  become  aware  only 
when  freed  from  it.  There  may  be  detected  a 
touch  of  half-humorous,  half-deliberate  defiance  of 
the  men  and  the  manners  Mr.  Curtis  had  left  in 
the  little  circle  of  New  England  transcendentalists. 
"  When  the  Persian  Poet  Hafiz,"  says  the  Preface 
to  the  "  Nile  Notes,"  "  was  asked  by  the  Philoso 
pher  Zenda  what  he  was  good  for,  he  replied ;  '  Of 
what  use  is  a  flower  ?  '  4  A  flower  is  good  to  smell,' 
said  the  Philosopher.  « And  I  am  good  to  smell 
it,'  said  the  poet."  The  function  of  a  poet,  prom 
enading  a  sensitive  and  irresponsible  soul  through 
the  lotus-fields  of  Egyptian  experience  and  obser 
vation,  finding  in  the  enjoyment  of  languorous 
odors  not  merely  the  excuse  but  the  justification 
of  his  occupation,  was  certainly  as  far  removed  as 
well  could  be  from  the  lofty  and  severe  ideals  of 
life  in  which  Mr.  Curtis  had  been  nurtured.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  imagine  the  dismay  it  must  have 
caused  some  of  his  older  companions  to  be  asked 
to  take  him  at  his  word,  and  it  is  not  surprising 
that  in  the  pages  of  the  Howadji  books  they  found 
only  too  much  evidence  that  his  word  was  at  once 
sincere,  and  accurate,  and  that  he  had  really  de 
scended  from  their  cold  heights  to  wander  as  long 
as  he  could  with  Hafiz  in  the  flower-carpeted  vales. 
As  the  role  he  had  announced  was  novel,  the 


THE  HOW  AD  J I  BOOKS.  67 

style  he  assumed  in  it  was  novel  also.  It  was 
essentially  artificial,  the  style  of  the  stage  he  had 
constructed  for  himself  and  had  boldly  furnished 
with  an  elaborate  set  of  conventions,  which  he  sum 
moned  his  readers  to  accept,  if  they  cared  to  un 
derstand  the  piece.  The  offer,  indeed,  was,  with 
gay  haughtiness,  a  laisser  ou  a  prendre.  The 
writer  would  abate  no  jot  of  his  terms.  From  the 
moment  that  "in  a  gold  and  purple  December 
sunset "  he  walked  down  to  the  boat  bound  for  the 
Nile  to  the  moment  when  he  reached  Cairo  again 
"while  the  sun  was  wreaking  all  his  glory  upon 
the  West,"  the  demand  upon  our  imagination  is 
constant.  We  must  read  as  we  would  watch  and 
listen  to  an  opera,  granting  completely  the  as 
sumptions  of  the  composer.  This  done,  there  are 
melody  and  harmony,  passion  and  sensuous  delight, 
and  —  to  him  who  will  take  it  —  aspiration  toward 
beauty  and  deep  and  varied  beauty.  But  the  con 
ditions  must  be  observed. 

The  note  of  invitation  and  of  warning  is  sounded 
on  the  first  page. 

"  To  our  new  eyes  everything  was  picture. 
Vainly  the  broad  road  was  crowded  with  Muslim 
artisans,  home  returning  from  their  work.  To  the 
mere  Muslim  observer  they  were  carpenters,  ma 
sons,  laborers  and  tradesmen  of  all  kinds.  We 
passed  many  a  meditating  Cairene,  to  whom  there 
was  nothing  but  the  monotony  of  an  old  story  in 
that  evening  and  on  that  road.  But  we  saw  all 
the  pageantry  of  oriental  romance  quietly  donkey- 


68  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

ing  into  Cairo.  Camels  too,  swaying  and  waving 
like  huge  phantoms  of  the  twilight,  horses  with 
strange  gay  trappings,  curbed  by  tawny,  turbaned 
equestrians,  the  peaked  toe  of  the  red  slipper  rest 
ing  in  the  shovel  stirrup.  It  was  a  fair  festal  even 
ing.  The  whole  world  was  masquerading,  and  so 
well  that  it  seemed  reality. 

"  I  saw  Fadladeen  with  a  gorgeous  turban  and 
a  gay  sash.  His  chibouque,  wound  with  colored 
silk  and  gold  threads,  was  borne  behind  him  by  a 
black  slave.  Fat  and  funny  was  Fadladeen  as  of 
old,  and  though  Fermorz  was  not  by,  it  was  clear 
to  see  in  the  languid  droop  of  his  eye,  that  choice 
Arabian  verses  were  sung  in  the  twilight  of  his 
mind. 

"  Yet  was  Venus  still  the  evening  star ;  for  be 
hind  him,  closely  veiled,  came  Lalla  Rookh.  She 
was  wrapped  in  a  vast  black  silken  bag,  that 
bulged  like  a  balloon  over  her  donkey.  But  a  star- 
suffused  evening  cloud  was  that  bulky  blackness, 
as  her  twin  eyes  shone  forth  liquidly  lustrous." 

No  one,  of  course,  will  pretend  that  this  is  a 
natural  tone  in  which  to  write  or  talk,  and  the 
young  writer  himself  must  have  been  free  from 
any  such  pretension,  but  if  it  was  an  artificial 
style,  it  was  not  an  empty  one.  The  scenes  he 
had  witnessed,  the  associations  by  which  they  were 
surrounded,  the  thought  they  had  aroused,  were 
intensely  interesting,  animating,  absorbing.  The 
style  was  a  sincere  and  faithful  attempt  to  clothe 
fitly  what  he  had  to  say,  to  adapt  the  costumes  and 


THE  HOWADJI  BOOKS.  69 

the  stage  setting  to  the  curious  subject  matter  of 
the  piece.  If  what  was  to  be  said  was  of  sufficient 
substance,  the  plan  of  presentation  was  logical  and 
should  justify  itself,  as  in  fact  it  does.  One  who 
would  seek  a  suggestive  picture  of  travel  on  the 
Nile  and  in  Syria  a  half  century  since,  before  the 
comforts  of  modern  travel  had  opened  the  river 
and  the  desert  to  those  beneficiaries  and  victims 
of  Cook  whose  purpose  is  not  strong  enough  to  dis 
pense  with  such  comforts,  can  find  none  more  truly 
informing  than  in  Curtis' s  books,  delightfully  free 
as,  for  the  most  part,  they  are,  of  information. 
The  plan,  it  will  be  noted,  was  peculiarly  elastic. 
The  writer  sets  out  to  tell  you  that  which  he  saw 
or  experienced,  and  his  thoughts,  in  the  way  that 
seemed  to  him  most  suitable.  He  reserves  to  him 
self  the  guidance  of  the  way.  He  gives  you  no 
clue.  He  promises  no  definite  destination.  He 
lays  out  no  task  of  which  you  shall  have  a  right  to 
exact  the  completion  ;  you  shall  have  what  history 
he  may  choose  to  give  you,  anil  in  such  remote  and 
fanciful  relations  as  may  occur  to  him ;  you  may 
see  the  people  as  he  saw  them,  with  the  eye  of  the 
poet  and  the  artist,  with  flashes  of  philosophic  in 
sight  and  merry  glances  of  humor,  but  you  shall 
not  complain  of  the  picture  as  lacking  in  detail  or 
in  breadth,  as  too  sober  or  too  light.  It  is  the  pic 
ture  as  it  lies  in  his  memory,  as  his  imagination 
and  sympathy  have  developed  and  colored  it.  It 
does  not  satisfy  the  reader  ?  Allans  !  "  Of  what 
use  is  a  flower?  " 


70  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

The  result  naturally  is  that  while  you  get  from 
tltese  books  much,  very  much  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  of 
the  Nile  and  the  desert,  of  Damascus  and  Jerusalem 
and  Esne,  of  the  land  of  the  mighty  past  and  of 
the  squalid  and  tragic  present,  of  Cleopatra  and  of 
Khadra  and  of  the  Ghazeeyah,  you  get  still  more 
and  constantly  of  the  writer,  and  therein  lies  the 
charm  which  still  holds  many  readers.  For  now, 
after  the  face  of  the  land  he  visited  is  greatly 
changed,  and  no  one  may  again  see,  traversing  his 
itinerary,  what  was  then  to  be  seen  ;  though  the 
questions  of  that  time,  with  which  he  occasionally 
deals  vigorously  and  acutely,  are  not  the  questions 
of  our  day  and  will  henceforth  engage  only  the 
historians,  there  remains,  in  the  soft  rich  light  of 
these  old  volumes,  a  portrait  of  the  young  Curtis. 
Those  of  us  who  knew  him,  if  only  by  his  work,  in 
his  ripe  and  beautiful  maturity,  in  that  splendid 
afternoon  of  his  life  when  the  sun  so  near  its  sud 
den  setting  seemed  still  the  sun  of  midday,  will 
always  find  in  this  portrait  a  mournful  but  deep 
enjoyment.  It  is  that  of  a  noble  youth,  delighting 
in  life,  in  its  novelty,  its  richness,  and  its  oppor 
tunities,  not  unmindful  of  its  duties  or  of  its  trag- 
ed}%  of  its  infinite  incitements  and  its  relentless 
limitations,  but  keenly  sensitive  to  its  beauty,  and 
mingling  a  genuinely  earnest  sense  of  its  graver 
side  with  the  ready  enjoyment  of  its  lighter  aspects 
natural  to  the  buoyancy  of  healthy  spirits. 

It  is  interesting  also  to  trace  in  these  volumes, 
unique  among  Mr.  Curtis's  writings,  as  they  are 


THE   HOWADJI  BOOKS.  71 

in  their  subject  matter,  and  written  in  a  style  that 
was  never  afterward,  —  save  in  brief  portions  of 
"  Prue  and  I "  —  in  any  great  degree  maintained, 
the  qualities  that  proved  lasting  in  his  work.  The 
two  that  impress  me  most  strongly  were  those  that 
contributed  most  to  his  extreme  charm  as  an  ora 
tor,  the  picturesqueness  of  his  impressions  and  the 
rhythm  of  his  expression.  These  are  the  more 
noticeable  because  they  had  not  yet  been  subdued 
by  study  and  reflection  and  labor.  By  picturesque- 
ness  of  impression  I  would  not  suggest  a  view  sen 
sitive  to  "  bits  "  and  readily  catching  the  subject 
of  a  sketch,  but  rather  the  sensitiveness  to  effects, 
a  breadth  of  vision  which  took  in  what  lay  be 
fore  it,  not  in  detail  or  by  a  continuous  analytic 
effort,  but  as  a  whole.  Curtis  was  an  ardent 
lover  of  nature ;  none  of  all  our  writers  with  whom 
the  love  of  nature  is  a  characteristic  trait  was 
more  devoted  or  happier.  His  delight  in  it,  from 
his  earliest  to  his  latest  years,  was  deep,  unfailing, 
as  fresh  and  joyous  in  the  latest  as  in  the  earliest. 
But  I  find  little  trace  of  a  minute  knowledge  of 
nature  in  his  writing  and  recall  little  in  his  talk. 
He  does  not  betray  the  intimate  acquaintance  with 
facts  or  the  acute  interest  in  them  that  Lowell  dis 
closes  on  every  one  of  so  many  pages.  He  easily 
might  have  been,  though  I  do  not  know  that  he 
was,  ignorant  of  the  names  or  relations  of  the  flow 
ers  and  unable  to  tell  more  than  the  very  general 
characteristics  of  the  trees  that  gave  him  such  ex 
quisite  pleasure.  There  was  little  of  the  naturalist 


72  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

in  him.  It  was,  if  I  may  venture  to  say  so,  the 
generic  beauty  of  nature  that  appealed  to  him  — • 
the  landscape,  not  its  features,  the  glory  of  the  day 
or  night,  the  sweep  of  the  horizon,  the  mood  of 
the  sea,  the  sky,  the  valleys  or  hills  or  groves  that 
lay  about  him.  "  The  palm-grove,"  he  writes,  "  is 
always  enchanted.  If  it  stretch  inland  too  allur 
ingly,  and  you  run  ashore  to  stand  under  the  bend 
ing  boughs,  to  share  the  peace  of  the  doves  swing 
ing  in  the  golden  twilight,  yet  you  will  never  reach 
the  grove.  You  will  gain  the  trees,  but  it  is  not 
the  grove  you  fancied  —  that  golden  gloom  will 
never  be  gained  —  it  is  an  endless  El  Dorado 
gleaming  along  the  shores.  The  separate  columnar 
trunks  ray  out  in  foliage  above,  but  there  is  no 
shade  of  a  grove,  no  privacy  of  a  wood,  except,  in 
deed,  at  sunset,  —  '  A  privacy  of  glorious  light.'  v 
It  was  the  grove  and  not  the  trees  that  would  sat 
isfy  him,  and  throughout  his  later  work  as  in  these 
first  books,  the  reader  feels  the  curious  charm  of 
the  completeness  and  strength  of  his  integral  im 
pressions.  His  vision  disclosed  pictures,  not  ob 
jects,  and  with  whatever  care  and  skill  and  patient 
workmanship  he  wrought  them,  it  was  not  objects 
but  pictures  that  he  presented. 

The  second  quality  that  I  have  noted,  the 
rhythm  of  his  expression,  is  clearly  allied  to  the 
first.  Curtis  seems  to  me  to  have  been,  in  an  im 
portant  sense,  born  an  orator.  Even  the  words  of 
these  first  pages  read  as  if  they  had  been  thought 
aloud,  as  if  their  cadence  had  been  realized  to  the 


THE   HOWADJI  BOOKS.  73 

ear  in  the  sound  of  his  own  rare  voice.  Often 
they  come  to  the  mind  like  the  singing  of  the  soli 
tary  and  unconscious  singer.  His  passionate  and 
constant  delight  in  music  shaped  his  phrases  and 
marshaled  his  sentences.  There  are  plentiful  in 
stances  of  excess  in  this  indulgence  in  the  oriental 
books,  before  his  taste  had  been  trained  and  his 
judgment  enlightened,  but  the  excess  is  incidental 
—  accidental  even  —  and  the  sense  remains  to  the 
reader  of  a  pure,  sincere  and  constant  joy  in  the 
music  of  his  own  expression.  I  merely  remark 
here  these  characteristics,  which  in  more  and  more 
highly  developed  form,  are  found  in  all  his  work, 
and  lent  to  it,  in  his  maturity,  much  of  the  charm 
that  won  his  host  of  readers  and  hearers,  and  of 
the  completeness  and  force  that  held  them. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LECTURER   AND   MAGAZINE   WRITER. 

BEFORE  he  had  completed  "  Nile  Notes  "  Curtis 
had  made  his  venture  in  the  lecturing  field.  The 
first  lecture  seems  to  have  been  given  in  his  na 
tive  city  of  Providence,  whence  I  find  him  inquir 
ing  about  the  next  "Assembly"  —not  a  Legisla 
tive  gathering  —  at  Boston,  and  announcing  that 
though  he  must  "  repeat  "  his  "  lecture  "  on  the 
"26th  February"  "he  firmly  intends  to  come  back 
for  the  Fancy  Ball."  In  the  spring,  Horace  Gree- 
ley  having  gone  to  Europe,  he  went  "  on  "  the  "  Tri 
bune  "  where,  April  14th,  he  writes  that  he  is  "  al 
ready  in  labor  with  the  critiques  upon  the  Academy 
Exhibition."  His  work  was  varied,  what  in  news 
paper  parlance  is  known  as  "  general  utility,"  the 
art  notices,  music,  reading  manuscript  and  foreign 
papers,  writing  paragraphs  and  now  and  then  a 
"  leader,"  described  by  one  of  his  companions  in 
the  office  as  "  clever,  agreeable,  bright,  never  vio 
lent  or  ugly."  Some  of  the  gentlemen  on  whose 
work  he  passed  judgment  were  not  so  lenient. 
"  The  artists,"  he  writes,  in  June  '51,  "  are  angry 

with  me,  some  of  them.     R thinks  I  am  mali- 

cioi/s  —  Ye  Gods !  —  and  considers  what  I  say  of 


LECTURER  AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.  75 

Hicks  impolitic !  Well,  I  shall  invite  Dogberry  to 
comprehend  these  vagrom  men,  —  I  give  it  up." 
The  companion  quoted  above  thinks  that  Curtis  was 
"  not  a  hard  or  very  steady  worker  at  that  time. 
He  took  the  world  easy  and  amused  himself  a  good 
deal."  Curtis's  own  impression  was  quite  differ 
ent.  When  urged  to  buy  a  share  in  the  Tribune 
property  and  permanently  unite  himself  with  the 
enterprise,  he  declined.  "  I  shrink,"  he  wrote, 
"  from  the  utter  slavery  of  such  a  life.  I  have  no 
moment  of  day  or  night  properly  my  own.  If  I 
hear  a  concert,  or  a  lecture,  if  I  go,  as  to-night,  to 
the  Cooper  Commemoration,  it  is  all  to  be  written 
out  —  every  bit  of  experience  must  be  grist  to  this 
imperious  mill.  I  fear  that  every  personal  and 
more  interesting  ambition  or  intent  must  be  sacri 
ficed  to  this  incessant  employment."  And  again, 

"H is  terribly  lazy,  which  to  me  —  who  await 

foreign  papers  at  the  office  until  2  A.  M.  and  then 
reel,  drunk  with  sleep,  homeward  to  correct  Syrian 
proofs,  which  startle  me  with  the  languid,  sunny 
repose  they  recall  —  is  the  unpardonable  sin." 

In  the  summer  of  1851  came  a  long  respite. 
"  Soon,"  he  writes  in  July,  "  I  shall  spread  sheeny 
vans  for  flight  —  Niagara,  Sharon,  Berkshire,  Na- 
hant,  Newport  and  general  bliss  ad  infinitum" 
These  journeyings  were  the  occasion  of  a  series  of 
letters  to  the  "  Tribune,"  afterward  published  under 
the  title  of  "  Lotus  Eating,"  linking  them  thus  to 
the  Howadji  books.  The  little  volume  was  illus 
trated  with  pleasant  woodcuts  from  sketches  by  his 


76  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

warm  friend  Kensett,  and  was  quite  as  successful 
as  anything  of  the  kind  could  be.  There  is  much 
still  to  enjoy  in  its  notes  of  a  life  that  has  quite 
passed  away,  and  though  the  little  volume  was  es 
sentially  ephemeral,  in  form  and  purpose,  it  gives 
clear  signs  of  the  two  tendencies  of  the  writer 
which  were  to  be  embodied  in  "  The  Potiphar 
Papers  "  published  the  next  year,  and  in  "  Prue 
and  I  "  four  years  later.  It  bears  marks  also  of 
the  weariness  with  which  Curtis's  mind  necessarily 
reacted  from  the  rather  feverish  social  life  in  which 
he  had  plunged,  and  which  overtaxed  his  strength, 
on  which  large  demands  were  made  by  his  really 
laborious  pursuit  of  his  profession,  and  shows  still 
other  marks  of  varied  personal  experiences,  which 
deeply  affected  him  at  the  time  and  contributed  to 
the  development  of  his  character. 

In  the  autumn  he  went  to  Providence  to  com 
plete  the  preparation  of  the  Howadji  in  Syria. 
Among  his  letters  from  there,  I  find  one  to  his 
father,  commenting  on  Judge  Curtis's  charge  to 
the  grand  jury  of  the  United  States  Court  on  the 
crime  of  treason  ;  the  treason  consisting  in  resisting 
the  return  of  fugitive  slaves.  It  is  so  clear-cut 
and  firm  in  its  reasoning  that  I  quote  it  as  showing 
in  what  direction  his  mind  moved  on  the  question. 
Referring  to  the  Judge's  declaration  of  the  uniform 
and  absolute  authority  of  law,  Curtis  writes  :  — 

"He  forgot  that  the  inherent  human  weakness 
which  makes  laws  necessary  also  affects  the  essen 
tial  character  of  those  laws,  and  that  there  may  be 


LECTURER  AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.  11 

a  legal  organization  of  society  -worse  than  social 
chaos.  The  very  oath  by  which  we  bind  ourselves, 
as  officers  of  the  human  law,  is  the  direct  recogni 
tion  of  a  higher  and  more  solemn  obligation,  and 
the  point  where  the  citizen  merges  in  the  man  he 
did  not  consider,  apparently,  a  point  for  his  no 
tice  ;  yet  that  is  the  essential  point  of  the  difficulty. 
Nobody  denies  the  obligations  of  the  law,  but  laws 
may  be  irretrievably  bad,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Roman  Emperors,  as  now  in  Italy  under  the 
Austrian  rule  ;  and  by  no  obligation  is  a  man 
bound  to  regard  them.  In  fact  this  pro-fugitive 
slave  law  movement  and  the  doctrine  of  law  at  all 
hazards,  is,  in  politics,  the  same  damnation  that 
the  infallibility  of  the  Romish  church  is  in  re 
ligion,  and  wherever,  as  with  us,  the  tendency  of 
the  times  is  to  individual  and  private  judgment, 
the  cause  of  the  wrong  is  just  as  much  lost  in 
politics  as  it  is  in  Religion. 

"  All  these  things,  which  good  order  and  com 
mon  sense  and  patriotism  require  to  be  discussed 
publicly  by  our  judges  and  legislators,  they  all 
shirk,  and,  emphasizing  the  obvious,  cry  Victory ! 
Thus  William  Goddard  said  to  me :  4  What  a  fine 
charge '  —  '  Yes,'  I  said,  '  but  there  is  something 
more.'  " 

For  the  next  few  years  Mr.  Curtis  led  a  varied 
life.  He  formed  a  more  or  less  close  connection 
with  the  house  of  Harper  and  Brothers,  who  had 
published  his  books  ;  wrote  sketches  and  social  notes 
for  the  Magazine,  of  which  Henry  J.  Raymond 


78  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

was  then  the  editor,  and  for  the  Weekly,  in  which 
he  started  the  department  of  the  Lounger  ;  became 
an  associate,  but  subordinate  editor  of  "  Putnam's 
Magazine,"  to  which  he  was  a  regular  contributor ; 
gave  a  good  many  lectures,  mostly  on  books,  and 
went  often  and  much  into  society,  the  gayeties  as 
well  as  the  richer  fruits  of  which  he  enjoyed  with 
great  zest.  The  work  for  the  Harper  periodicals 
was  of  many  sorts.  In  part  it  was  slight  comment 
on  the  pictures,  the  plays,  the  players  and  singers 
of  the  day,  on  the  incidents  of  the  life  of  New 
York,  more  interesting  in  some  ways  than  now  and 
much  more  easily  grasped.  Some  of  it  was,  how 
ever,  serious  enough,  and  from  time  to  time  the 
notes  on  men  and  events  in  Europe  showed  a  firm 
touch  and  a  clear  intelligent  vision.  In  the  social 
articles,  under  the  light  and  rather  sentimental 
surface  treatment,  there  was  a  strong  tone  of  mo 
rality.  In  one  of  his  longer  paragraphs,  he  wrote 
of  Thackeray :  "  He  seems  to  be  the  one  of  all 
authors  who  takes  life  precisely  as  he  finds  it.  If 
he  finds  it  sad,  he  makes  it  sad  :  if  gay,  gay.  You 
discover  in  him  the  flexible  adaptability  of  Horace, 
but  with  a  deep  and  consuming  sadness  which  the 
Roman  never  knew,  and  which  in  the  Englishman 
seems  to  be  almost  sentimentality."  This  I  im 
agine  describes  pretty  nearly  the  Thackeray  that 
Mr.  Curtis  deeply  loved  and  admired,  and  to  whom 
he  yielded  the  tribute  of  more  or  less  conscious 
imitation.  The  sadness  in  the  younger  man  was 
not  so  real,  the  seeming  sentimentality  was  rather 


LECTURER  AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.  79 

more  obvious,  but  was  a  passing  indulgence  for  a 
mind  not  yet  sufficiently  settled  to  be  as  earnest  and 
genuine  as  it  could  and  was  to  be,  not  yet  having 
found  the  object  that  could  be  pursued  resolutely 
enough  to  prevent  the  influence  of  Thackeray's 
manner,  rather  than  of  Thackeray's  purpose. 

In  these  days  Mr.  Curtis  wrote  verse  and  a  con 
siderable  amount  of  it.  He  even  contemplated  "  a 
volume  of  poems  with  Ticknor,"  and  he  delivered 
a  number  of  "  poems  "  at  college  commencements. 
These  are  not,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  find 
them,  of  a  high  order.  They  were  smooth  enough, 
and  in  passages  they  were  what  was  then  known  as 
"elegant,"  fashioned  on  the  model  of  the  Queen 
Anne  poets,  but  they  seem  so  foreign  to  the  char 
acter  of  his  mind  as  it  afterward  developed  most 
strongly,  that  I  should  never  recognize  one  of 
them  as  his  from  internal  evidence.  He  had  no 
fondness  for  the  work  and  no  pride  in  it.  "  I  'm 
not  a  poet,"  he  wrote,  "  and  I  wish  they  would  n't 
ask.  But  as  that  is  the  worst  excuse  for  not  writ 
ing  verse,  I  consent."  In  this  as  in  other  directions, 
he  was  trying  his  wings.  If  they  did  not  sustain 
him  in  long  flights,  he  was  distinctly  successful  in 
short  ones,  and  there  are  several  songs l  that  are 

1  Here  are  two  selections :  — 

THE  REAPER. 

I  walked  among-  the  golden  grain 
That  bent  and  whispered  to  the  plain, 
"  How  gaily  the  sweet  summer  passes, 
So  gently  treading  o'er  us  grasses." 


80  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

exquisite  in  form,  and  tender  and  touching  in  feel 
ing.  Had  he  devoted  to  this  art  the  time  and  labor 
necessary  to  the  full  unfolding  of  his  powers,  he 
might  easily  have  ranked  high.  I  cannot  regret 
that  he  did  not.  He  would  at  best  have  been  one 
of  no  small  number,  and  he  could  hardly  have 
achieved  the  work  he  afterward  performed. 

A  sad-eyed  Reaper  came  that  way, 
But  silent  in  the  sing-ing  day,  — 
Laying  the  graceful  grain  along 
That  met  the  sickle  with  a  song. 

The  sad-eyed  Reaper  said  to  me, 
"  Fair  are  the  summer  fields  you  see ; 
Golden  to-day  —  to-morrow  gray ; 
So  dies  young  love  from  life  away." 

"  'T  is  reaped,  but  it  is  garnered  well," 

I  ventured  the  sad  man  to  tell ; 
"  Though  Love  declines  yet  Heaven  is  kind, 

God  knows  his  sheaves  of  life  to  bind." 

More  sadly  then  he  bowed  his  head, 
And  sadder  were  the  words  he  said,  — 
"  Tho'  every  summer  green  the  plain, 
This  harvest  cannot  bloom  again." 

EGYPTIAN  SERENADE. 

Sing  again  the  song  you  sung 
When  we  were  together  young  — 
When  there  were  but  you  and  I 
Underneath  the  summer  sky. 

Sing  the  song,  and  o'er  and  o'er, 
Though  I  know  that  nevermore 
Will  it  seem  the  song  you  sung 
When  we  were  together  young. 


LECTURER  AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.          81 

Before  he  returned  from  Europe,  he  had  formed 
the  project  of  a  life  of  Mehemet  Ali,  to  whom  one 
of  the  last  chapters  of  the  "  Howadji  in  Syria  "  is 
given.  He  pursued  it  with  much  seriousness  for 
several  years,  but  finally  gave  it  up.  "  Frankly," 
he  said,  "  the  motive  that  held  me  loyal  to  it  is  not 
the  best :  it  was  the  desire  to  do  something  which,  by 
the  orthodox  and  received  standard,  should  be  con 
ceded  to  be  a  graver  work  than  anything  I  have 
done.  But  the  reason  is  puerile,  although  the  senti 
ment  is  good."  One  thing  which  led  him  to  drop 
the  task  undoubtedly  was  the  conviction,  as  he 
wrote,  that  Mehemet  Ali  "was  only  a  soldier  of 
fortune,  a  condottiere  upon  the  splendid  scale, 
whose  success  was  purely  personal  and  therefore 
transitory."  Such  a  subject  could  not  keep  Mr. 
Curtis  up  to  his  work.  He  was  not  a  story-teller, 
not  an  artist  in  historical  painting.  The  litterateur 
was  already  in  bonds  to  the  moralist. 

His  connection  with  "  Putnam's  Magazine  "  was 
in  some  ways  extremely  fortunate.  It  gave  him 
work  of  a  kind  that  he  enjoyed  and  did  well.  It 
extended  his  acquaintance  1  with  the  men  of  letters 

1  The  following  is  a  note  from  Mr.  Godwin's  address  upon  Mr. 
Curtis  delivered  to  the  Century  Club  :  — 

"  It  may  interest  those  who  are  curious  as  to  our  literary  history 
to  add,  that  among  our  promised  contributors  —  the  most  of  whom 
complied  with  their  promises  —  were  Irving,  Bryant,  Emerson, 
Longfellow,  Lowell,  Hawthorne,  Thoreau,  George  Ripley,  Miss 
Sedgwick,  Mrs.  Kirkland,  author  of  A  New  Home  :  Who  'II  fol 
low  ?  J.  P.  Kennedy,  author  of  Swallow  Barn ;  Fred  S.  Coz- 
zens,  of  the  Sparrowgrass  Papers ;  Richard  Grant  White,  '  Shake 
speare's  scholar ; '  Edmund  Quincy,  author  of  Twice  Married ; 


82  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

of  the  day.  His  intimate  association  with  Charles 
F.  Briggs,  the  chief  in  the  office,  and  with  Parke 
Godwin,  his  associate,  was  a  healthful  and  fruitful 
one,  for  both  were  men  of  fine  fibre  and  strong  pur 
pose.  Especially  the  connection  gave  him  a  fairly 
defined  objective  for  his  activity,  and  one  requiring 
sustained  and  concentrated  attention. 

Parke  Godwin,  in  his  "Commemorative  Address" 
before  the  Century  Association,  gives  some  remi 
niscences  of  the  Putnam s'  days.  Referring  to 
"The  Potiphar  Papers"  and  to  "  Prue  and  I,"  he 


"  It  was  evidence  of  the  fecundity  and  versatility 
of  Mr.  Curtis's  gifts  that  while  he  was  thus  carry 
ing  forward  two  distinct  lines  of  invention  —  the  one 
full  of  broad  comic  effects,  and  the  other  of  exqui 
site  ideals  —  he  was  contributing  to  the  entertain- 

William  Swinton,  since  the  accomplished  historian  of  The  Army 
.of  the  Potomac  ;  Richard  Kimball,  Herman  Melville,  of  '  Ty- 
pee '  and  '  Omoo  '  fame,  Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  E.  C.  Sted- 
man,  Ellsworth,  Thomas  Buchanan  Read,  Maria  Lowell,  Jer- 
vis  McEntee,  and  others.  We  had  a  strong  backing  from  the 
clergy,  —  the  Rev.  Drs.  Hawks,  Vinton,  Hanson,  Bethune,  Baird ; 
also  the  occasional  assistance  of  Arthur  Hugh  Clough,  the  friend 
of  Tom  Hughes,  Matthew  Arnold,  and  other  pupils  of  Dr.  Arnold, 
who  was  then  in  the  country ;  William  Henry  Herbert,  reputed 
grandson  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  sportsman  and  naturalist, 
known  as  Frank  Forrester ;  William  North,  a  frank  and  brilliant 
young  Englishman  ;  Fitz  James  O'Brien,  who  died  in  our  War  for 
the  Union ;  and  Thomas  Francis  Meagher,  a  gallant  soldier  in  the 
same  war,  and  afterwards  governor  of  Montana.  Miss  Delia  Bacon, 
whose  unhappy  history  is  told  by  Hawthorne  in  Our  Old  Home, 
began  her  eccentric  Shakespeare-Bacon  controversy  by  a  learned 
and  brilliant  article  in  the  Monthly." 


LECTURER   AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.  83 

ment  of  our  public  in  a  half  dozen  other  different 
modes, — monthly  criticisms  of  music  and  the  drama 
that  broadened  the  scope  and  raised  the  tone  of 
that  form  of  writing  ;  rippling  Venetian  songs  that 
had  the  swing  of  the  gondola  in  them ;  crispy  short 
stories  of  humor  or  pathos ;  reminiscences  of  the 
Alps  taken  from  his  Swiss  diaries ;  elaborate  re 
views  of  books,  like  Dickens's  ;  Bleak  House,'  the 
Bronte  novels,  Dr.  Veron's  '  Memoires,'  4  Hiawatha,' 
and  recent  English  poetry,  including  that  of  Kings- 
ley,  Matthew  Arnold,  Thackeray,  the  Brownings 
and  Tennyson,  which,  written  forty  years  ago, 
have  not  been  surpassed  since  by  more  appreciative, 
discriminating,  and  sympathetic  criticism,  even  in 
that  masterly  and  more  elaborate  book  of  our  fel 
low-member,  '  The  Victorian  Poets.'  In  addition 
to  these  he  gave  us,  from  time  to  time,  solid  and 
thoughtful  discussions  of  '  Men  of  Character,'  of 
'  Manners,'  of  '  Fashion,'  of  the  4  Minuet  and  the 
Polka'  as  social  tide -marks,  and  of  'Rachel,' 
which  may  still  be  read  with  instruction  and  pleas 
ure  for  their  keen  observation,  their  nice  critical 
discernment,  their  cheerful  philosophy,  and  their 
entrancing  charms  of  style. 

"  Then,  ever  and  anon,  Mr.  Curtis  would  be  off 
for  a  week  or  two,  delivering  lectures  on  4  Sir 
Philip  Sidney,'  on  4  The  Genius  of  Dickens,'  on 
'The  Position  of  Women,'  and  in  one  case  a 
course  of  lectures  in  Boston  and  in  New  York  on 
4  Contemporary  Fiction.'  In  a  galaxy  of  lectur 
ers  which  included  Emerson,  Phillips,  Beecher, 


84  GEORGE   WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

Chapin,  Henry  Giles,  and  others,  he  was  a  bright 
particular  star,  and  everywhere  a  favorite.  A 
harder-working  literary  man  I  never  knew :  he  was 
incessantly  busy,  a  constant,  careful,  and  wide 
reader,  yet  never  missing  a  great  meeting  or  a 
great  address,  or  a  grand  night  at  the  theatre. 
From  our  little  conclaves  at  No.  10  Park  Place, 
where,  I  fear,  we  remorselessly  slaughtered  the 
hopes  of  many  a  bright  spirit  (chiefly  female)  he 
was  seldom  absent,  and  when  he  came  he  took  his 
full  share  of  the  routine,  unless  Irving,  Bryant, 
Lowell,  Thackeray,  or  Longfellow  sauntered  in,  and 
'that  day  we  worked  no  more.' " 

A  few  letters  of  this  time  from  Curtis  to  Briggs 
give  glimpses  of  the  various  life  to  which  Mr.  God 
win  refers.  He  writes,  December  of  1853,  from 
Milwaukee :  — 

MY   DEAR   DELUDED   EASTERN,  —  Why   do    you 

stay  in  that  dried-up,  old-f ogyish  East  ?  A  man  is 
nothing  if  not  a  squatter  upon  the  prairies  ;  for,  my 

dearest  B ,  I  have  seen  a  prairie,  I  have  darted 

all  day  across  a  prairie,  I  have  been  near  the  Mis 
sissippi,  I  have  been  invited  to  Iowa,  which  lies 
somewhere  over  the  western  horizon.  I  feel  as  all 
the  people  feel  in  novels,  —  I  confess  the  West ! 
Great  it  is  and  greatly  to  be  praised. 

Yesterday  the  almanac  said  December,  but  the 
sun  said  May,  as  we  rolled  out  of  Chicago  to 
wards  the  Mississippi.  There  was  a  boundless  sky 
and  a  boundless  earth.  It  was  the  old  feeling  of 


LECTURER   AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.  85 

the  desert  minus  the  romance  of  association,  minus 
history  and  the  Arabian  Nights.  But  if  you  could 
fancy  the  sun  relenting,  and  blessing  instead  of 
blasting  the  wide  level  of  the  earth,  then,  having 
seen  the  desert,  you  would  know  the  prairie. 

I  feel  that  I  am  on  my  travels  once  more.  De 
troit  (where  I  delivered  two  lectures,  had  an  ova 
tion,  was  requested  to  stay  and  deliver  more,  and 
was  magnificently  lionized,  and  roared  in  my  most 
dulcet  tones)  has  drifted  into  the  East. 

In  the  East  the  note  is  equally  gay :  — 

BOSTON,  January  20,  '54. 

A  being  who  whirls  in  a  round  of  routs,  din 
ners,  and  visits,  who,  as  his  friend  Tom  Appleton 
says,  "  nightly  vomits  fire  and  ribbons  for  the  satis 
faction  of  gaping  multitudes,  who  is  taken  to  balls, 
and  rushes  into  small  fishing  towns  to  fascinate 
the  alewives  —  who  betakes  himself  with  his  rush 
light  to  illuminate  small  villages  whereunto  gas  has 
never  been  previously  brought," — has  little  time 
for  sublunary  pursuits.  Don't  dream  of  a  line 
from  me  until  I  fly  these  syren  east  winds  and 
heavy  rains,  these  beautiful  women  and  hospitable 
men.  To-morrow  I  go  to  the  Longfellows,  and  I 
will  write  you  a  line  soon  again,  that  you  may  know 
that  the  rose-leaf  has  not  been  utterly  fatal. 

My  lecture  ?  Oh,  yes,  it  was  fine.  The  hall 
was  crammed ;  see  the  "  Transcript "  of  last  night. 
I  was  immediately  asked  to  deliver  another,  in  the 
Monday  evening  course,  but  was  too  wise  to  accept. 


86  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

From  Cambridge,  whither  he  had  gone  to  pre 
pare  one  of  his  articles  for  the  "  Homes  of  Ameri 
can  Authors,"  he  writes :  — 

CBAIGIE  HOUSE,  June  8,  '54. 

I  am  staying  now  with  the  poet  and  his  wife. 
What  though  it  rains,  or  shines  ?  It  is  quite  the 
same  to  me.  I  sit  and  look  over  the  melancholy 
meadows  at  the  winding  Charles,  and  quote  my  host, 
or,  which  is  better,  I  contemplate  my  hostess,  and 
thank  God  for  the  gracious  and  beautiful  woman 
for  whom,  clearly,  the  woods,  flowers,  the  stars, 
suns,  and  men  were  created. 

Lowell,  the  neighboring  poet  (the  P's  prevail 
in  Cambridge,  —  Poets,  Philosophers,  and  Profes 
sors  of  religion  and  other  things),  is  busy  with  a 
sketch  of  Keats,  which  must  be  done  to-morrow. 

It  is  for  Professor ,  of  Boston,  editor  of  the 

"English  Poets."  Professor  is  one  of  the 

cleverest  and  best  of  the  Cambridge  men.  He  has 
just  been  to  Holyoke,  and  brought  home  a  worm 
more  brilliant  than  Herrick's  glow-worm  or  the 
Cuban  curculio. 

I  write  you  in  Washington's  chamber.  The  tiles 
adorn  my  fireplace.  But  I  am  lazy  and  thick 
headed. 

He  spent  three  months  of  1854  at  Newport,  which 
he  calls  "  my  country,  where  my  airiest  castles  are 
built  and  my  fairest  estates  lie."  I  give,  as  they 
?un,  a  half  dozen  of  letters  to  Mr.  Briggs  from 
there :  — 


LECTURER  AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.  87. 

NEWPORT,  June  29,  '54. 

I  have  left  the  poets  behind,  and  awake  amidst 
great  historians  and  by  the  Poluphloisboio  Tha- 
lasses.  Lowell  sends  as  much  love  as  one  man  can 
send  to  another.  Longfellow  and  his  wife  accom 
panied  me  even  to  the  cars,  and  I  came  slipping 
along  in  the  most  gorgeous  of  summer  sunsets,  and 
found  myself  in  the  most  perfect  of  climates,  with 
a  lofty  compassion  for  those  who  celebrate  the 
savage  shores  of  Staten  Island.  Lowell  is  coming 
here  in  July  to  visit  the  Nortons,  who  arrive  to-day. 
Your  particular  friends  Evert  and  George  D.  were 
going  out  of  the  historian's  house  as  I  came  in.  I 
see  their  figures  fluttering  upon  the  edge  of  the 
cliff  over  the  sea.  They  will  be  restored  to  your 
longing  heart  to-morrow,  for  they  leave  to-night. 

NEWPORT,  July  7,  '54. 

My  young  friend  Curtis  is  here,  immensely  tick 
led  to  see  his  sentimental  phiz  in  Putnam,  and 
struggling  with  a  poem!  All  the  fools  are  not 
dead  yet,  it  seems.  But  I,  who  have  lived  a  lie  for 
thirty  years,  —  I,  whose  life  was  a  riper  romance 
than  the  most  imaginative  of  these  idiots  can  invent, 
—  must  laugh  at  that  simple  ass,  Curtis,  who  is  actu 
ally  screwing  out  a  poem  in  the  regular  old  heroic 
style.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  young  men  should 
waste  themselves  on  literature  and  what  not,  in 
stead  of  building  steamers  and  laying  up  riches, 
like  my  best  of  friends,  or  speculating  on  the  great 
scale,  like  my  worst  enemy.  Curtis  tells  me  he  has 


GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

written  to  Kensett  to  come  here  and  stop,  and  give 
up  that  silly  Saguenay  business  for  the  present. 

If  he  does  I  will  let  you  know,  for  your  friend 
and  chaplain,  Dr.  Choules,  tells  me  that  you  are  the 
friend  of  all  loafers  and  give  them  passages,  and  I 
know  not  what  else. 

AQUIDNECK,  July  12,  '54. 

For  newspapers  and  editorial  discrimination  I 
have  acquired  the  profoundest  reverence,  from  hav 
ing  been  half  a  year  "  upon  "  the  "  Tribune  "  and  by 
having  dined  semi-occasionally  with  the  Press  Club. 
That  editors  are  wise  as  well  as  witty,  sagacious  as 
well  as  sonorous,  and  as  full  of  feeling  as  of  fancy, 
are  three  alliterative  facts  of  which  I  consider  my 
self  amply  assured.  And  yet,  spite  of  their  witty 
wisdom,  I  love  the  loafers,  the  scapegraces,  the  sin 
ners.  I,  too,  am  a  Bohemian. 

NEWPORT,  July  23,  '54. 

That  a  man  who  did  n't  like  Lawrence's  head  of 
Lowell  and  of  Longfellow  should  admire  the  print 
of  a  beatified  barber  and  irreproachable  steam 
boat  captain,  which  Hueston  meant  to  publish  as 
my  likeness,  was  perfectly  natural,  only  in  future  I 
am  sure  you  will  permit  me  to  laugh  out  loud  at 
your  artistic  admirations  and  censures.  It  is  also 
entirely  rational  and  to  be  naturally  expected  that 
you  should  be  supported  in  your  commendation  of 
a  melancholy  libel  by  such  eminent  connoisseurs  as 
were  quoted  to  me  by  name  in  connection  with  your 


LECTURER   AND   MAGAZINE    WRITER.  89 

own.  I  am  sorry  that  you  will  be  deprived  of  the 
pleasure  of  having  me  in  my  favorite  character  of 
reformed  George  Barnwell,  set  in  gold,  with  a  cir 
clet  of  Clark's  hair  worn  in  your  cherishing  bosom ; 
for  I  have  written  Mr.  Knickerbocker  Hueston 
that,  rather  than  make  my  bow  to  the  world  in  such 
an  unexceptionable  coiffure,  etc.,  I  would  snatch  up 
my  story  and  decamp  from  the  "  gallery." 
You  are  a  high  old  humbug. 

AQUIDNECK  (Isle  of  Peace  and  Plenty), 
August  10,  '54. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  ZACCHEUS,  —  Please  climb 
a  tree  and  consider  the  denizens  of  Newport,  how 
they  loaf  ;  they  write  not,  neither  do  they  read  ;  and 
yet  I  say  unto  you  that  Solomon  with  all  his 
concubines  had  not  a  better  time.  Time  goes  I 
know  not  where,  I  care  not  how.  Upon  cool  morn 
ing  piazzas  I  sit  talking  with  the  Muses,  in  warm 
evening  parlors  I  rush  dancing  with  the  Graces. 
Two  hundred  carriages  with  the  dust  of  eight  hun 
dred  wheels  throng  to  Bateman's  in  the  afternoon, 
or,  dustless  and  delicious,  prance  along  the  hard 
bottom  of  the  sea,  or  far  out  upon  the  island,  driv 
ing  the  genial  Kensett.  We  look  back  across  woods, 
and  meadows  white  to  the  harvest,  and  see  the  pic 
ture  of  peace  and  plenty  framed  in  the  soft  sapphire 
of  the  sea.  There  are  no  end  of  pretty  women. 
At  the  Bellevue  dance  on  Monday  I  saw  more  really 
lovely  girls  than  often  fall  to  the  lot  of  anybody's 
less  than  a  sultan's  eyes.  Baltimore  is  especially 


90  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

brilliant.  There  are  Southern  women  also,  all 
wrong  upon  the  great  Question  ! ! !  —  wronger  and 
more  unreasonable,  but  more  courteous,  than  the 

men.     Bob   J is   here   dancing  with   all   the 

girls,  and  sometimes  so  drunk  that  he  cannot  move 
across  the  floor.  /  dance  and  people  say,  "  I 
thought  you  hated  it."  "  I  love  it,  madam ! "  "  Yes, 
like  other  men,  you  say  one  thing  and  do  another." 
"  Pardon,  most  lovely  of  women,  I  write  and  say 
what  I  think.  I  have  never  been  treacherous  to 
my  love  of  the  dance." 

AQUIDNECK  (Isle  of  Peace),  October  9,  '54. 

Where  are  you  this  bland  Sunday  morning? 
These  great,  gorgeous  days  chase  each  other  through 
these  spacious  skies  and  die  in  unspeakable  splen 
dor  along  the  sea.  I  am  going  to  church,  because 
I  shall  hear  a  man  of  earnest  and  solemn  feeling 
chant  a  kind  of  religious  reverie  which  his  congre 
gation  love,  but  I  am  sure  do  not  understand. 
The  people,  also,  look  calm  and  pious.  There  is 
not  too  strong  a  sense  of  millinery.  Now  that  the 
flood-tide  has  fallen  away  from  these  shores  of 
fashion,  the  pearls  glisten  in  the  sunshine. 

I  shall  come  home  about  the  23d  of  October, 
write  a  lecture,  be  away  at  the  West  in  December, 
home  in  January,  away  at  the  East  in  February, 
and  home  in  March.  I  mean  to  lecture  during  two 
months  and  make  two  thousand  dollars.  I  have 
put  my  price  up  to  fifty  dollars. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"  THE   POTIPHAR   PAPERS  ;  " 

FROM  Mr.  Curtis's  work  for  "  Putnam's  Maga 
zine  "  came  two  volumes  by  which  he  is,  perhaps, 
even  better  known  in  American  letters  than  by  the 
Howadji  books,  "  The  Potiphar  Papers  "  and  "  Prue 
and  I."  "  It  was  while  providing  entertainment  for 
our  readers  in  a  second  number,"  says  Mr.  Parke 
Godwin,  "  that  the  vivacious  Harry  Franco  (Charles 
F.  Briggs,  the  editor-in-chief)  exclaimed,  '  I  have 
it !  Let  us  each  write  an  article  on  the  state  of 
parties.  You,  Howadji,  who  hang  a  little  candle 
in  the  naughty  world  of  fashion,  will  show  it  up 
in  that  light.'  Mr.  Curtis  ...  at  once  wrote  a 
paper  on  the  state  of  parties,  which  he  called  4  Our 
Best  Society.'  It  was  a  severe  criticism  of  the  fol 
lies,  foibles,  and  affectations  of  those  circles  which 
got  their  guests,  as  they  did  their  edibles  and  car 
riages,  from  Brown,  Sexton  and  Caterer,  and  which 
thought  unlimited  supplies  of  terrapin  and  cham 
pagne  the  test  and  summit  of  hospitality.  Tren 
chant  as  it  was,  it  was  yet  received  with  applause. 
Some  thought  the  name  of  the  leading  lady  more 
suggestive  than  facts  warranted,  and  that  in  such 
phrases  as  '  rampant  vulgarity  in  Brussels  lace,' 


92  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

4  the  orgies  of  rotten  Corinth/  and  '  the  frenzied 
festival  of  Borne  in  her  decadence,'  the  brush  was 
overloaded.  None  the  less,  the  satire  delighted  the 
public,  and  was  soon  followed  by  other  papers  in 
the  same  vein,  since  collected  as  '  The  Potiphar 
Papers.'  The  older  folks  acknowledged  them  to 
be  the  best  things  of  the  kind  since  Irving  and  his 
friends  had  taken  the  town  with  the  whim-whams 
and  conceits  of  Evergreen  Wizard  and  the  Cock 
loft  family.  They  were  to  some  extent  exaggera 
tions,  in  which  occasional  incidents  were  given  as 
permanent  features;  but  their  high  and  earnest 
purpose,  their  genuine  humor,  their  amusing  de 
tails,  their  hits  at  characters,  and  their  sarcasms 
deodorized  of  offensive  personality  by  constant 
drippings  from  the  springs  of  fancy,  won  them 
great  favor.  If  we  behind  the  screen  sometimes 
felt  that  we  shook  hands  with  Kurz  Pacha  and  the 
Reverend  Cream  Cheese,  they  were,  like  sweet  bully 
Bottom,  '  marvelously  translated.'  " 

I  suppose  that  this  summary  of  the  impressions 
of  a  contemporary  and  a  companion  gives  a  fair 
view  of  the  way  in  which  "  The  Potiphar  Papers," 
at  the  time  of  their  appearance,  affected  intelligent 
minds  familiar  with  the  society  of  the  day.  There 
is  plenty  of  evidence  of  the  interest  they  excited. 
They  had  great  vogue,  and  greatly  helped  the 
young  magazine,  while  they  brought  to  their  writer 
much  notoriety  and  some  fame.  As  was  natural, 
they  made  "  hard  feelings  "  among  those  who  were, 
or  thought  they  were,  satirized  in  these  pages ;  but 


THE  POTIPHAR  PAPERS;   PRUE   AND   I.         93 

on  the  whole  they  were  greatly  enjoyed,  and  their 
healthy  purpose  was  recognized.  Taken  up  now 
after  forty  years,  a  reader  must  be  well  through 
middle  age  to  recognize  their  substantial  basis  of 
fact,  and,  so  far  as  they  survive,  it  is  as  satire  on 
the  one  hand  and  a  picture  of  the  author's  mind 
on  the  other,  rather  than  as-  a  description  of  society. 
Yet  a  description  of  society  they  really  were,  with 
a  sadly  substantial  basis  of  fact.  Mr.  Curtis's  own 
letters  and  those  of  his  contemporaries,  and  the  re 
collections  of  men  who  moved  in  the  same  circles, 
are  not  lacking  in  evidence  that  the  brush  was  not 
very  heavily  overloaded.  It  was  a  period  of  swift 
money-making,  when  a  great  and  increasing  crowd 
of  men  and  women  were  rapidly  gaining  the  means 
for  a  life  without  work,  and  for  the  luxuries  and  in 
dulgences  that  had  previously  been  within  the  reach 
only  of  inherited  wealth.  To  get  money  was  rela 
tively  easy.  It  was  a  matter  of  energy  and  shrewd 
ness  amid  abounding  opportunities.  To  spend 
money  rationally  or  with  refinement  was  something 
far  different,  for  which  neither  nature  nor  training 
had  fitted  the  possessors,  and  for  which  the  con 
ditions  of  success  in  getting  it  had  particularly  un 
fitted  them.  The  spending,  like  the  getting,  became 
an  affair  of  competition,  and  in  both  it  was  quan 
tity  that  told.  But  the  latter  competition  was  largely 
intrusted  to  the  women,  and  they  were,  far  less  than 
their  husbands,  subjected  to  strong  conventions, 
and  wrought  their  wayward  purpose  with  irrespon 
sible,  unenlightened,  feverish  energy.  In  such  con 


94  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

ditions  Mesdames  Potiphar  and  Croesus  and  Gnu, 
Mr.  Gauche  Boosey  and  Miss  Caroline  Petitoes  be 
came  not  only  possible  or  probable,  but  actual,  so 
far  as  their  conception  of  life  goes,  or  their  mode 
of  acting.  While,  therefore,  "  The  Potiphar  Pa 
pers  "  are  not  pleasant  reading  for  the  children  and 
grandchildren  of  the  class  represented  in  their 
pages,  I  should  advise  no  one  to  put  the  4>ook  aside 
with  the  notion  that  it  is  a  greatly  exaggerated 
or  even  a  particularly  strongly  colored  account  of 
what  went  on  under  the  eyes  of  the  writer. 

If  the  book  is  to  be  considered  independently  of 
its  accuracy,  it  must  appear  very  uneven.  The  best 
parts  of  it  by  far  are  the  serious  parts,  —  the  com 
ment  of  the  artist  rather  than  the  figures  he  draws. 
The  spirit  of  the  author  is  of  one  intense  indignation, 
of  anger  and  revolt  and  sorrow,  at  the  un worthiness 
of  what  he  depicts.  Nurtured  himself  in  the  pure 
idealism  of  intellectual  and  moral  New  England, 
yet  with  a  keen  and  warm  delight  in  the  joys  — 
the  sensuous  as  well  as  the  spiritual  and  emotional 
joys  —  of  life,  bringing  from  wide  travel  and  varied 
society  an  eager  zest  for  the  happiest  and  the  best, 
a  patriot  moreover  in  every  fibre  of 'his  being,  with 
a  sensitive  pride  in  his  native  land  and  high  hopes 
of  what  it  might  be,  a  high  standard  of  what  it 
should  be,  all  doors  flung  wide  open  to  his  budding 
fame  and  his  charming  personality,  Curtis  was 
deeply  moved  by  what  he  saw  of  greed  and  vulgar 
ity  and  coarse  display,  and  the  unseemly  strife  in 
money-spending.  The  opening  chapter,  "  Our  Best 


THE  POTIPHAR  PAPERS;    PRUE  AND  L         95 

Society,"  expresses  this  feeling,  and  on  some  ac< 
counts  it  might  have  been  better  had  he  stopped 
with  that.  On  some  accounts,  but  not  on  the  whole  ; 
for  there  is  so  much  of  good  sense,  so  much  fair 
ness,  humor,  wit,  philosophy  in  the  other  papers  that 
it  would  have  been  a  pity  to  lose  them.  As  satire, 
however,  they  cannot  be  called  highly  successful. 
They  fall  distinctly  below  that  of  Thackeray,  on 
which  they  are  more  or  less  consciously  fashioned. 
Their  bitterness  is  not  caustic  enough ;  the  under 
tone  of  gravity  is  not  deep  enough ;  the  fancy, 
though  subtle  and  delicate,  is  not  sustained  or  con 
sistent,  and  the  light  dramatic  machinery  adopted 
does  not  work  smoothly.  Particularly  the  charac 
ters  are  not  alive  with  any  sense  of  reality.  The 
reader  is  now  and  then  puzzled  and  even  annoyed 
by  their  variation  from  the  types  for  which  they  are 
intended  to  stand.  They  frequently  excite  pity, 
but  not  sympathy.  All  of  which  means  only  that 
Curtis  was  not  a  creative  writer,  and,  considering 
how  small  a  part  of  his  writing  was  in  this  direc 
tion,  that  is  not  a  very  important  criticism.  It 
would  be,  indeed,  hardly  worth  making,  were  it 
not  that  in  this  instance  the  choice  of  a  form  not 
giving  free  scope  to  his  strongest  qualities,  but 
cramping  and  slightly  distorting  their  effect,  ob 
scures  somewhat  the  real  value  of  the  work,  which 
is  substantial.  That  value  comes  from  the  force 
and  elevation  of  the  writer's  purpose.  It  was 
no  small  thing  in  those  days  that  a  man  of  his 
knowledge  and  insight,  wielding  a  pen  of  such  sin- 


96  GEORGE    WILLIAM   &URTIS. 

gular  charm,  reaching  so  wide  a  class  of  intelligent 
readers,  should  have  worked  out  that  purpose  in 
the  way  in  which  he  worked  it  out,  should  have 
set  in  the  pillory  by  the  wayside  the  vices  of  a  soci 
ety  unquestionably  fascinating  to  many,  and,  with 
every  word  of  scorn  or  ridicule  or  irony  that  he 
cast  at  them,  should  have  made  plainer  and  more 
respected  the  high  ideals  which  they  violated.  As 
the  satirist  is  not  always  the  moralist,  but  is  some 
times  the  hopeless  cynic,  wearying  and  discourag 
ing  and  depressing  the  manhood  and  womanhood 
of  his  readers,  I  do  not  take  it  to  be  a  serious  qual 
ification  of  Mr.  Curtis's  position  in  literature  that 
he  was  not  eminently  a  satirist.  And  as  the  sound 
moralist,  however  he  may  elect  or  be  impelled  to  do 
his  work,  does  work  that  lasts  and  blesses  while  it 
lasts,  I  find  in  this  volume  a  service  for  which  we 
may  well  be  thankful,  for  which  I  feel  deeply  thank 
ful,  knowing  that  its  influence  was  not  only  whole 
some  but  strong  and  wide.  Many  a  young  man, 
reading  the  papers  from  month  to  month,  found 
erected  between  him  and  the  temptation  of  a  frivo 
lous  and  essentially  low  life  the  light  but  not  easily 
disregarded  barrier  of  the  scorn  of  a  guide  who  was 
at  once  a  moralist,  a  philosopher,  and  an  accom 
plished  gentleman. 

The  second  of  the  books  issuing  from  the  pages 
of  Putnam's  was  "  Prue  and  I."  I  am  glad  again 
to  cite  the  words  of  Mr.  Godwin,  who  says  that 
"  Mr.  Franco  and  his  colleague  of  the  triumvirate 
used  to  look  forward  to  these  delightful  papers  as 


THE  POT  IP  EAR  PAPERS;    PRUE   AND   I.        97 

one  does  to  a  romance  to  be  continued ;  and  when 
we  received  one  of  them,  we  chirruped  over  it,  as  if 
by  some  strange  merit  of  our  own  we  had  entrapped 
a  sunbeam."  Sunbeams  unfading  they  are,  and  I 
believe  will  be  for  long  years  yet  to  come,  —  ten 
der,  gay,  rich,  sweet,  life-giving,  touching  the  clouds 
that  gather  at  evening  with  hues  as  lovely  as  those 
that  ushered  in  the  dawn.  It  is  well-nigh  forty  years 
since  "  Prue  and  I "  came  to  me,  one  of  the  innum- 
erous  books  of  my  boyhood,  and  was  my  frequent 
companion  in  long  strolls  over  the  autumn  hills  or 
among  the  woods  of  spring.  No  year  of  the  two- 
score  has  passed,  I  think,  that  the  book  has  not  been 
read  again,  and  every  year  its  subtle  charm  has 
grown  more  charming  and  more  subtle.  Had  Curtis 
written  only  this,  —  had  this  alone  represented  to 
the  world  the  character  and  gifts,  the  aspirations  and 
the  attainments,  of  the  man,  —  his  fame  in  one  sense 
would  rather  have  gained  than  suffered,  because  he 
would  always  have  been  associated  with  this  singu 
larly  perfect  production.  I  can  imagine  how  we 
might  then  have  mourned  the  fate  that  deprived  us 
of  further  fruit  of  so  rare  a  sort,  and  might  have 
set  ourselves  to  fancy  how  he  would  have  developed, 
what  sound  wisdom,  what  serene  dignity,  what  beau 
tiful  loyalty  to  the  best  and  purest,  what  fine  and 
delicate  range  of  a  warm  and  chaste  imagination 
would  have  unfolded  in  the  riper  and  wider  work  of 
the  author  of  "Prue  and  I."  It  is  one  of  the  curious 
effects  of  the  limits  nature  sets  to  even  our  mental 
appetites,  that  when  what  would  have  been  but  the 


98  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

imagined  achievements  of  this  author  have  become 
realities,  and  have  multiplied  through  a  long  and 
fertile  life,  the  fame  that  these  have  won  for  him  is 
less  distinct  than  the.  one  book  would  have  given 
him.  Not  less  firm,  certainly,  nor  less  admirable, 
but  less  distinct ;  so  that  I  find  the  book,  with  very 
many,  an  incidental  association  with  Curtis's  mem 
ory,  and  not,  as  it  has  grown  to  be  with  me,  largely 
the  embodiment,  the  type  of  all  associations.  I 
like  to  think  that  it  was  with  this  book  in  his  mind 
that  Lowell  wrote :  "  Had  letters  kept  you,  every 
wreath  were  yours."  For  it  seems  to  me  that  in 
this  book  there  is  more  of  the  man,  of  the  thinker, 
dreamer,  artist,  and  moralist,  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  great  mass  of  his  writings.  And  indeed,  it 
could  not  but  be  very  genuine.  Here  is  no  elab 
oration  of  years,  no  polished  and  repolished  gem, 
slowly  and  carefully  wrought  with  critical  reflec 
tion  and  matured  art.  Here  are  a  scant  half  dozen 
magazine  articles,  filling  a  couple  of  hundred  of 
small  pages,  written  with  rushing  pen,  amid  varied 
and  pressing  occupations,  at  times  in  the  stolen  mo 
ments  of  hurried  journeys,  and  never  in  the  calm  of 
deliberate  industry.  What  was  put  on  paper  was 
what  sprang  from  the  unforced  mind.  From  the 
conditions  of  their  writing  the  papers  were  a  species 
of  improvisation,  and  I  think  that  in  great  part  to 
that  is  due  their  unity  and  strength  amid  such  rich 
variety,  such  bold  and  unreined  fancy.  What  we 
get  is  the  man,  everywhere  and  always,  nothing  less 
or  other. 


THE  POTIPHAR  PAPERS;   PRUE   AND   I.         99 

In  "  Prue  and  I  "  the  dramatic  machinery,  un 
like  that  of  "  The  Potiphar  Papers,"  runs  with  en 
tire  ease.  It  is  very  slight  and  the  persons  are  few 
—  the  old  book-keeper  and  his  immortal  wife,  Tit- 
bottom,  and  Bourne  the  millionaire.  The  motive 
is  by  no  means  very  novel.  The  reflections  of  a 
philosopher  of  moderate  or  scant  means  upon  the 
fortunes,  successes,  failures,  realities,  and  shams 
of  his  fellow-beings  have  been  written  for  ages  in 
many  tongues.  The  compensations  for  the  deficien 
cies  of  life  to  be  got  from  a  lively  imagination,  the 
advantages  of  fancied  adventure  over  the  uncertain 
and  trying  reality,  the  riches  of  the  world  of  books 
to  him  whose  only  possession  —  save  a  contented 
mind  —  they  are,  have  been  sung  and  painted  ever 
since  the  favors  of  fortune  began  to  vary  the 
conditions  of  men.  So  far  from  being  novel,  the 
general  theme  of  the  book  may  be  called  danger 
ously  hackneyed,  and  has  spread  pitfalls  of  com 
monplace  in  the  way  of  numberless  writers  old 
and  young.  The  world  of  readers  yawns  at  the 
memory  of  the  weary  platitudes  with  which  it  has 
strewn  the  pages  of  books  since  before  the  inven 
tion  of  printing.  But  if  the  theme  be  not  novel  it 
is  because  the  contrasts  of  life  are  as  old  as  the 
race,  and  men  who  think  at  all  are  forced  in  one 
vein  or  another  to  think  of  them.  It  is  the  dis 
tinction  of  Curtis  that  his  thought  of  them  is  so 
sweet,  so  sound,  so  subtle  in  its  insight,  broadly 
wise,  gracious  and  luminous  in  its  expression,  es 
sentially  noble  in  spirit.  It  is  not  merely  or  chiefly 


100  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

the  delight  of  the  artist  in  the  harmony  brought 
out  of  variety  that  the  author  feels  as  he  works  in 
with  rich  fancy  the  different  characters  and  scenes. 
It  is  deep  and  tranquil  joy  in  the  substance  of  pur 
ity,  kindness,  justice,  and  love  which  these  vari 
ations  illustrate.  The  modest  and  faithful  and 
unimaginative  Prue  is  the  real  inspiration  of  the 
piece.  One  feels  that  her  love  of  poetry,  her  pleas 
ure  in  the  fine  things  of  the  finest  books  which  her 
husband  reads  to  her  with  glowing  or  tear-dimmed 
eyes,  her  enjoyment  of  the  sunsets  so  magical, 
so  infinitely  suggestive  to  him,  are  almost  purely 
sympathetic,  are  born  of  her  love  for  him,  and  in 
the  quaint  humor,  with  which  her  husband  admits 
this  to  himself  and  to  his  readers,  one  feels  also  that 
the  love  of  this  pure  and  gentle  woman  is  the  real 
thing  before  whose  gracious  radiance  the  splendors 
of  nature  and  literature  and  imagination  pale  their 
ineffectual  fire. 

If  the  writer  peoples  the  world  of  wealth  and 
fashion,  which  he  assumes  to  watch  from  afar  off, 
with  beautiful  women  whose  "  beauty  is  heaven's 
stamp  upon  virtue ;"  if  he  makes  of  his  own  fancy 
the  ideal  cavalier  whose  perfect  reverence  and  grace 
and  manly  purity  match  the  qualities  of  the  woman, 
he  never  permits  the  suspicion  that  the  reality  is 
not  possible  :  he  only  insists  that,  unless  the  reality 
is  there,  luxury  is  no  better  than  poverty,  and  that 
true  manliness  and  womanliness  are  common  to  all 
conditions.  There  is  no  suggestion  of  a  sneer  in 
the  smile  with  which  he  greets  the  carriage  of  An- 


THE  POTIPHAR  PAPERS;   PRUE   AND   I.      101 

Telia,  and  describes  his  own  misadventure  with  the 
"  wrinkled  Eve"  whose  apple-stand  tempted  him  to 
his  fall.  The  smile  suggests,  indeed,  the  ephemeral 
nature  of  Aurelia's  social  advantages,  and  even  of 
her  youthful  beauty,  and  implies  that  the  accidents 
of  poverty  are  not  of  any  more  permanent  serious 
ness  than  those  of  riches ;  but  that  is  not  because 
the  old  book-keeper  holds  with  the  preacher  that  all 
is  vanity,  but  because  he  holds  that  the  only  really 
important  thing  is  virtue,  and  that  virtue  bears 
imperial  sway  wherever  its  throne  may  be  set  up. 
This  it  is  that  gives  to  the  book  its  perennial  charm. 
Its  charm  as  literature  I  think  very  great,  —  it 
grows  with  every  reading.  There  is  a  wide  range 
of  delightful  literary  suggestion  in  the  little  volume. 
It  teems  with  rich  and  varied  allusion.  One  feels 
in  reading  it  that  he  is  in  intimate  intercourse  with 
the  best  minds,  and  every  literary  association  it 
awakens  is  touched  with  a  new  light.  The  fantas 
tic  characters  that  swarm  unresting  on  the  deck 
of  the  Flying  Dutchman,  beneath  the  spectral 
shrouds,  and  in  the  mystery  of  smoke  and  haze, 
have  been  called  from  pages  known  to  all  the  world  ; 
but  whenever  the  reader  again  sees  them  they  will 
be  different,  and  more  than  they  had  been,  for  the 
illumination  bestowed  by  the  pen  of  Curtis.  Nor 
has  Curtis  anywhere  else,  I  think,  sounded  such 
solemn  depths.  There  are  suggestions  of  them  in 
the  Howadji  books,  but  hardly  more.  The  under 
tone  of  "  Titbottom's  Spectacles  "  is  of  pure  tragedy, 
and  that  of  "  A  Cruise  in  the  Flying  Dutchman '"' 


102  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

is  only  less  so.  But  nowhere  is  it  more  than  an 
undertone,  and  the  last  page  leaves  us  again  under 
the  glance  of  Prue's  pure  eyes,  safe  from  the  ques 
tions  that  vex  us  with  thoughts  beyond  the  reaches 
of  our  souls. 

In  "  Prue  and  I "  Curtis's  style,  though  not  yet 
fully  developed,  was  determined,  and  nearly  every 
quality  to  be  found  in  "  The  Easy  Chair,"  in  the 
great  orations,  and  even  in  the  editorial  writings 
of  after  years,  is  here.  The  style  of  the  Howadji 
is  far  in  the  past.  There  is  no  more  opera,  no 
more  array  of  conventions  splendid  but  artificial, 
no  longer  the  gay  and  haughty  demand  on  the  assent 
of  the  reader.  There  is  instead  the  most  engaging 
candor,  and,  amid  a  wealth  of  fancy  and  imagery 
and  glowing  sentiment,  there  is  the  essential  sim 
plicity  of  sincerity.  The  book  from  first  to  last 
breathes  integrity.  It  amuses,  it  delights,  it  stirs 
the  imagination,  it  thrills  delicately  the  most  sensi 
tive  chords,  but  above  all  it  inspires  affection  and 
respect.  The  writer,  though  he  should  be  forever 
unknown,  is  henceforth  forever  a  friend,  to  be  loved 
and  always  to  be  trusted. 

In  December,  1855,  at  the  close  of  the  year  in 
which  "  Prue  and  I  "  was  begun,  Mr.  Curtis  became 
engaged  to  Miss  Anna  Shaw,  daughter  of  Francis 
G.  Shaw,  of  Staten  Island.  On  Thanksgiving  Day, 
1856,  they  were  married.  It  was  in  every  way  a 
most  happy  union,  and  the  marriage  marked,  if  not 
a  turning  point,  a  distinct  and  important  stage  in 
the  career  of  Mr.  Curtis.  Among  the  guests  at 


THE  POTIPHAR  PAPERS;   PRUE  AND   I.      103 

the  quiet  wedding  was  Major  John  C.  Fremont. 
I  shall  have  occasion  later  to  refer  to  the  part  Mr. 
Curtis  took  in  the  great  campaign  in  which  the 
"  Pathfinder "  led  the  first  gallant  and  splendid 
charge  of  the  Republican  party  against  slavery, 
and  to  the  influence  of  Mr.  Curtis's  connection 
with  the  Shaw  family  in  stimulating  and  sustain 
ing,  if  not  in  arousing,  his  zeal  in  the  cause  of 
freedom.  That  influence  —  pure,  strong,  inspir 
ing,  and  in  the  highest  sense  moral  —  was  to  con 
tinue  through  life.  I  am  sure  that  I  violate  no 
essential  reserve  in  stating  that,  in  the  long  and  ar 
duous  years  of  Mr.  Curtis's  varied  work,  his  home 
was  always  a  haven  where  he  constantly  sought 
refuge  and  repose,  and  from  which,  refitted,  re 
inforced,  inspired  with  renewed  confidence  and  cour 
age,  he  set  out  to  the  "good  wars"  that  invited 
him,  and  that  to  the  gracious  and  noble  lady  who 
made  that  home  is  due  no  small  share  in  his  many 
and  rich  achievements. 


CHAPTER 

BUSINESS   EXPERIENCES. 

THE  seven  years  following  Mr.  Curtis's  return 
from  Europe  in  1850  were  very  busy,  and  generally 
very  laborious,  particularly  after  the  establishment 
of  "  Putnam's  Magazine."  While  still  engaged  on 
that,  he  had  begun  the  series  of  weekly  contribu 
tions  to  "  Harper's  Weekly  "  by  "  The  Lounger,"  to 
which  I  have  already  referred  ;  had  written  a  num 
ber  of  social  essays  for  "  Harper's  Monthly ;  "  and 
finally,  in  1854,  had  undertaken  the  sole  charge  of 
the  "  Easy-Chair."  Meanwhile  he  kept  up  his  lec 
turing,  with  what  energy  the  extracts  from  his  let 
ters  already  given  show.  For  the  most  part  he 
took  his  task  lightly  enough,  and  found  "  no  end  " 
of  amusement,  as  well  as  much  satisfaction,  in  his 
treatment  by  the  local  press  of  the  cities  he  visited. 
He  wrote  January  15,  1853,  to  his  father  :  — 

"  A  Utica  paper  makes  a  rather  amusing  notice 
of  the  lecture.  It  is  to  the  effect  that  whoever  has 
read  Mr.  C.'s  books  must  have  known  what  kind  of 
a  lecture  to  expect,  —  that  it  was  full  of  gorgeous 
imagery,  and  that,  although  it  had  humor,  beauty 
was  its  characteristic,  but  was  full  of  sudden  and 
quaint  contrasts  that  presented  an  endless  series  of 


BUSINESS    EXPERIENCES.  105 

grave  and  gay  imagery.  Yet  an  almost  feminine 
perception  of  beauty,  an  unlimited  command  of 
language,  an  imagination  chastened  but  rich,  and 
evidently  moulded  by  the  most  soothing  influences 
of  the  Orient,  resulted  in  a  work  which  the  hearer 
could  not  forget,  —  a  series  of  pictures  that  would 
linger  long  in  the  memory  of  every  one  present. 
That  is  about  the  pith  of  it,  which  has  the  invalu 
able  merit  of  praising  the  lecture  for  just  what  ifc 
was  not  !  So,  what  with  commendation  for  what 
it  is  and  for  what  it  is  not,  it  will  go  hard  with  it 
if  it  does  not  secure  all  suffrages." 

The  few  letters  to  his  father  that  have  come  into 
my  hands  are  extremely  interesting,  and  some  of 
them  very  touching.  There  was  a  very  sound  and 
wholesome  relation  between  father  and  son.  The 
early  essential  independence  of  mind  shown  by  the 
latter,  always  accompanied  by  and  indeed  resting 
on  a  strong  affection  and  sincere  respect,  together 
with  the  gayety  of  many  of  the  letters,  show  the 
intimacy  that  existed.  Mr.  Curtis  was  not  yet 
thirty-two  when  his  father  died.  Shortly  after 
that  loss  he  wrote  to  his  mother  (January  21, 
1856):  — 

"  You  may  imagine  how  sad  and  strange  it  is  not 
to  feel  father's  interest  and  anxiety  in  my  success. 
I  used  to  read  everything  that  was  said  about  me 
with  his  eyes,  and  so  gladly  sent  him  all  the  praise. 
But  I  do  not  feel  at  all  removed  from  his  real  sym 
pathy  and  interest  even  now.  He  is  lost  to  the  eye, 
but  not  at  all,  even  as  a  father,  to  the  heart.  I 


106  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

shall  always  live  as  if  in  his  eye.  In  every  act  1 
shall  always  feel  his  judgment.  .  .  .  To  children, 
parents  are  matters  of  course,  like  trees  and  stones. 
But  when  we  become  men  and  women,  we  reverence 
their  individual  excellence,  and  when  we  lose  them 
we  know  that  we  have  lost  friends.  How  just  and 
calm  and  generous  a  friend  my  father  was  to  me  ! 
He  was  so  candid  and  simple  in  his  love  that  I 
never  ceased  to  feel  myself  a  boy  when  I  was 
with  him." 

He  was  soon  to  gather  some  of  that  harvest  of 
experience  which  tells  us  beyond  all  question  that 
the  springtime  of  life  has  passed  forever.  In  the 
spring  of  1856  he  had  put  some  money  into  the 
publishing  firm  of  Dix,  Edwards  &  Co.,  to  whom 
had  passed  the  ownership  of  "  Putnam's  Monthly." 
They  failed  the  next  year  in  April,  and  in  August 
Curtis,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  de 
scribes  his  experience  in  business :  "  I  was  respon 
sible  as  a  general  partner.  To  save  the  creditors 
(for  I  would  willingly  have  called  quits  myself),  I 
threw  in  more  money,  which  was  already  forfeited, 
and  undertook  the  business  with  Mr.  Miller,  the 
printer,  who  wanted  to  save  himself.  Presently 
Mr.  Shaw  put  in  some  money  as  special  partner. 
But  what  was  confessed  to  be  difficult,  when  we  re 
lied  upon  the  statements  given  us,  became  impossi 
ble  when  those  statements  turned  against  us,  and 
last  week  we  suspended.  In  the  very  moment  of  ar 
rangement,  it  appeared  that  by  an  informality  Mr. 
Shaw  was  held  as  a  general  partner :  the  creditors 


BUSINESS  EXPERIENCES.  107 

swarmed  in  to  avail  themselves  of  the  slip,  and  we 
are  now  wallowing  in  the  law.  Of  course  I  lose 
everything  and  expected  to,  but  there  is  now,  in 
addition,  this  ugly  chance  of  Mr.  S.'s  losing  sixty 
or  seventy  thousand  dollars,  and  all  by  an  accident 
which  the  creditors  fully  comprehend." 

Without  going  into  the  details  of  the  arrange 
ment  by  which  this  trouble  was  finally  settled,  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  Mr.  Curtis  assumed  a  large 
indebtedness  for  which  he  was  not  legally  bound, 
and  for  nearly  a  score  of  years  labored  incessantly 
to  pay  it,  devoting  to  that  purpose  the  money 
earned  by  lecturing.  It  was  an  arduous  task,  in 
volving  not  merely  the  work  of  preparation  and 
the  time  spent  in  traveling,  but  much  hardship 
and  exposure,  much  sacrifice  of  the  joys  of  a  home 
peculiarly  dear,  and  the  almost  complete  abandon 
ment  of  sustained  scholarly  pursuits  to  which  he 
had  looked  with  longing.  It  was  not,  however, 
without  compensations,  and  some  of  high  value. 
Of  these,  necessarily,  the  greatest  was  the  one  he 
rarely  if  ever  mentioned,  —  the  satisfaction  of  his 
conscience.  Besides  this,  however,  there  was  the 
close  acquaintance  he  formed  in  every  part  of  the 
Union  with  the  many  of  those  who  were  to  march 
with  him  in  the  field  of  the  better  politics.  When 
he  took  up  the  work  of  an  editor  a  few  years  later, 
this  acquaintance  was  continued  and  extended,  and 
was  of  inestimable  value  to  him  and  to  the  country. 
It  gave  him  the  sureness  of  aim  which  made  his  writ 
ing  more  effective,  perhaps,  than  that  of  any  other 


108  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

man  in  his  generation ;  and  it  helped  to  give  him 
also  the  sense  of  confidence  in  the  final  triumph  of 
the  causes  in  which  he  successively  engaged,  which 
was  at  once  a  source  of  strength  to  himself  and  an 
inspiration  to  others.  This  experience,  moreover, 
was  a  constant  training  in  the  art  of  public  speak 
ing,  of  which  he  became  easily,  I  think,  the  greatest 
master  of  his  country  in  his  time.  But  of  these 
compensations  there  was,  of  course,  no  thought 
when  Mr.  Curtis  calmly  took  up  the  heavy  burden 
which  he  knew  would  not  be  discharged  for  many 
years,  if  ever.  That  was  done  in  the  quiet  and  un 
questioning  obedience  to  the  law  of  simple,  manly 
fidelity  that  was  a  law  of  his  nature,  and  as  inte 
gral  a  part  of  it  as  his  kindness  of  heart  and  gen 
tleness  of  manners.  So  modestly  was  it  done  that 
I  have  almost  a  sense  of  offending  his  proud  and 
delicate  self-respect  in  thus  speaking  of  it,  as  if  it 
were  a  thing  he  could  have  helped  doing.  But  we 
all  know  that  it  was  a  thing  of  a  sort  rarely  done : 
any  account  of  Mr.  Curtis's  life  would  be  deficient 
were  it  omitted. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1856. 

IN  1846,  ten  years  before  the  first  candidate  of 
the  Republican  party  had  been  named,  James  Rus 
sell  Lowell  had  written,  apropos  of  the  movement 
for  the  annexation  of  Texas :  — 

"Slavery,  the  Earth-born  Cyclops, 

Fellest  of  the  giant  brood, 
Sons  of  brutish  Force  and  Darkness 

That  have  drenched  the  Earth  with  blood, 
Famished  in  his  self-made  desert, 

Blinded  by  our  purer  day, 
Seeks  in  yet  unblasted  regions 

For  his  miserable  prey. 
Shall  we  guide  his  gory  fingers 

Where  our  helpless  children  play  ?  " 

For  ten  years  devoted  men  and  women,  with 
the  utmost  energy  and  courage  and  persistence,  if 
not  always  with  discretion,  had  been  pressing  this 
question  upon  the  American  people.  The  people 
would  hardly  listen  when  only  the  almost  unknown 
territory  involved  in  the  annexation  of  Texas  and 
in  the  Mexican  War  was  concerned,  but  when  the 
sHave  power  forced  the  same  question  upon  their 
reluctant  ears  with  reference  to  Kansas  and  Ne 
braska,  the  land  toward  which  the  restless  children 


110  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

of  the  free  States  had  begun  to  push  forward,  there 
was  no  stilling  it.  And  then  it  was  that  Mr. 
Curtis  seems  first  earnestly  to  have  considered  it. 
He  could  not  long  have  resisted  it,  we  may  be 
sure,  but  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  connection 
he  had  formed  with  the  Shaw  family  undoubtedly 
quickened  his  sympathies,  and  aroused  him  to  a 
sense  of  what  it  was  possible,  and  therefore  impera 
tive,  for  him  to  do.  The  father  and  mother  of  the 
woman  who  was  to  be  his  wife  were  of  the  early 
school  of  intensely  earnest,  unflinching,  uncompro 
mising,  unwearying  foes  of  slavery.  It  was  a  part 
of  their  religion  to  fight  the  evil  at  all  times  and  in 
all  ways  that  offered  or  could  be  found,  and  it  is 
certain  that,  if  the  flame  of  his  zeal  was  not  kin 
dled,  it  was  nursed  and  fanned  by  theirs. 

As  the  extracts  given  from  his  letters  to  his 
father  from  Brook  Farm  and  from  Concord,  and 
later  after  his  return  from  Europe,  clearly  show, 
Mr.  Curtis's  mind  was  never  closed  to  the  essen 
tial  nature  of  slavery,  never  misled  as  to  the  spe 
cious  claims  made  for  it  founded  on  the  Consti 
tution,  and  especially  never  dull  to  the  moral 
question  involved.  It  was  the  latter  that  most 
deeply  moved  him,  and  aroused  him  to  a  series  of 
appeals  to  young  men  of  the  Union  which  had 
a  deep  and  lasting  effect.  In  the  spring  of  1856 
had  occurred  the  assault  upon  Charles  Sumner  in 
the  Senate  Chamber  by  Preston  Brooks,  of  South 
Carolina.  In  that  year  also  culminated  the  strug 
gle  in  Kansas  between  the  free-state  immigrants 


THE    CAMPAIGN  OF  1856.  Ill 

and  settlers,  largely  from  New  England,  and  the 
pro-slavery  men  from  the  South,  chiefly  from  Mis 
souri,  the  latter  aided  by  the  force  and  author 
ity  of  the  Federal  government  under  President 
Pierce.  This  is  not  the  place  to  trace  even  in 
outline  the  features  of  the  tremendous  conflict  of 
which  these  were  incidents.  It  was  in  these  that 
the  tendencies  of  the  slave  power,  which  gave  to 
the  presidential  canvass  of  that  year  its  distinctive 
character,  were  most  strikingly  exposed. 

The  first  speech  of  importance  by  Mr.  Curtis 
was  delivered  August  5,  1856,  before  the  Liter 
ary  Societies  of  Wesley  an  University,  at  Middle- 
town,  Conn.  Its  title  was,  "The  Duty  of  the 
American  Scholar  to  Politics  and  the  Times." 
lie  was  thirty-two  years  old.  "  Too  young,"  he 
told  the  college  boys,  "  to  be  your  guide  and  phi 
losopher,  I  am  yet  old  enough  to  be  your  friend. 
Too  little  in  advance  of  you  in  the  great  battle  of 
life  to  teach  you  from  experience,  I  am  yet  old 
enough  to  share  with  you  the  experience  of  other 
men  and  of  history.  I  would  gladly  speak  to 
you,"  he  went  on,  "  of  the  charms  of  pure  scholar 
ship  ;  of  the  dignity  and  worth  of  the  scholar ;  of 
the  abstract  relation  of  the  scholar  to  the  state. 
The  sweet  air  we  breathe  and  the  repose  of  mid 
summer  invite  a  calm  ethical  or  intellectual  dis 
course.  But  would  you  have  counted  him  a  friend 
of  Greece,  who  quietly  discussed  the  abstract 
nature  of  patriotism  on  that  Greek  summer  day 
through  whose  hopeless  and  immortal  hours  Leon- 


112  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

idas  and  his  three  hundred  stood  at  Thermopylae 
for  liberty  ?  And  to-day,  as  the  scholar  meditates 
that  deed,  the  air  that  steals  in  at  his  window 
darkens  his  study  and  suffocates  him  as  he  reads. 
Drifting  across  a  continent,  and  blighting  the  har 
vests  that  gild  it  with  plenty  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Mississippi,  a  black  cloud  obscures  the  page 
that  records  an  old  crime,  and  compels  him  to 
know  that  freedom  always  has  its  Thermopylae, 
and  that  his  Thermopylae  is  called  Kansas." 

Of  Sumner  he  said :  "  In  a  republic  of  freemen 
this  scholar  speaks  for  freedom,  and  his  blood 
stains  the  Senate  floor.  There  it  will  blush 
through  all  our  history.  That  damned  spot  will 
never  out  from  memory,  from  tradition,  or  from 
noble  hearts." 

Of  the  function  of  the  scholar  class  :  — 
"  The  very  material  success  for  which  nations, 
like  individuals,  strive,  is  full  of  the  gravest  dan 
ger  to  the  best  life  of  the  state  as  of  the  individ 
ual.  But  as  in  human  nature  itself  are  found  the 
qualities  which  best  resist  the  proclivities  of  an  in 
dividual  to  meanness  and  moral  cowardice,  —  as 
each  man  has  a  conscience,  a  moral  mentor  which 
assures  him  what  is  truly  best  for  him  to  do,  —  so 
has  every  state  a  class  which  by  its  very  charac 
ter  is  dedicated  to  eternal  and  not  to  temporary 
interests ;  whose  members  are  priests  of  the  mind, 
not  of  the  body ;  and  who  are  necessarily  the  con 
servative  body  of  intellectual  and  moral  freedom. 
This  is  the  class  of  scholars.  The  elevation  and 


THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  1856.  113 

correction  of  public  sentiment  is  the  scholar's 
office  in  the  state. 

"  If,  then,  such  be  the  scholar  and  the  scholar's 
office,  —  if  he  be  truly  the  conscience  of  the  state, 
—  the  fundamental  law  of  his  life  is  liberty.  At 
every  cost,  the  true  scholar  asserts,  defends,  lib 
erty  of  thought  and  liberty  of  speech.  Of  what 
use  to  a  man  is  a  thought  that  will  help  the  world, 
if  he  cannot  tell  it  to  the  world  ?  Such  a  thought 
comes  to  him  as  Jupiter  came  to  Semele.  He  is 
consumed  by  the  splendor  that  secretly  possesses 
him.  The  Inquisition  condemns  Galileo's  creed: 
*  Pur  muove '  —  still  it  moves  —  replies  Galileo 
in  his  dungeon.  Tyranny  poisons  the  cup  of  Soc 
rates:  he  smilingly  drains  it  to  the  health  of  the 
world.  The  church,  towering  vast  in  the  midst 
of  universal  superstition,  lays  its  withering  finger 
upon  the  freedom  of  the  human  mind,  and  its  own 
child,  leaping  from  its  bosom,  denounces  to  the 
world  his  mother's  madness." 

After  tracing  the  character  of  Milton  as  most 
nearly  fulfilling  the  conditions  of-  the  ideal  scholar, 
Mr.  Curtis  made  a  concise  but  careful  and  strong 
statement  of  the  advance  of  the  slave  power,  from 
the  framing  of  the  Constitution  to  the  passage  of 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill.  He  drew  a  pathetic 
and  impressive  picture  of  the  men  of  Connecticut 
who  answered  the  call  to  Lexington  and  Boston. 

"  Through  these  very  streets  they  marched  who 
never  returned.  They  fell  and  were  buried,  but 
they  can  never  die.  Not  sweeter  are  the  flowers 


114  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

that  make  your  valley  fair,  not  greener  are  the 
pines  that  give  your  valley  its  name,  than  the 
memory  of  the  brave  men  who  died  for  freedom. 
And  yet  no  victim  of  those  days,  sleeping  under 
the  green  sod  of  Connecticut,  is  more  truly  a 
martyr  of  Liberty  than  every  murdered  man 
whose  bones  lie  bleaching  in  this  summer  sun 
upon  the  silent  plains  of  Kansas.  And  so  long 
as  Liberty  has  one  martyr,  so  long  as  one  drop 
of  blood  is  poured  out  for  her,  so  long  from  that 
single  drop  of  bloody  sweat  of  the  agony  of  hu 
manity  shall  spring  hosts  as  countless  as  the  forest 
leaves  and  mighty  as  the  sea. 

"  Brothers  !  the  call  has  come  to  us,"  he  con 
cluded  ;  "  I  bring  it  to  you  in  these  calm  retreats. 
I  summon  you  to  the  great  fight  of  Freedom.  I 
call  upon  you  to  say  with  your  voices  whenever  the 
occasion  offers,  and  with  your  votes  when  the  day 
comes,  that  upon  the  fertile  fields  of  Kansas,  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  continent,  the  Upas-tree  of 
slavery,  dripping  death-dews  upon  national  pros 
perity  and  upon  free  labor,  shall  never  be  planted. 
I  call  upon  you  to  plant  there  the  palm  of  peace, 
the  vine  and  olive  of  a  Christian  civilization.  I 
call  upon  you  to  determine  whether  this  great 
experiment  of  human  freedom,  which  has  been  the 
scorn  of  despotism,  shall  by  its  failure  be  also  our 
sin  and  shame.  I  call  upon  you  to  defend  the 
hope  of  the  world.  The  voice  of  our  brothers  who 
are  bleeding,  no  less  than  of  our  fathers  who  bled, 
summons  us  to  this  battle.  Shall  the  children  of 


THE   CAMPAIGN   OF  1856.  115 

unborn  generations  clustering  over  that  vast  West 
ern  Empire  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed  or  cursed  ? 
Here  are  our  Marathon  and  Lexington.  Here  are 
our  heroic  fields.  The  hearts  of  good  men  beat 
with  us.  The  fight  is  fierce  ;  the  issue  is  with 
God,  but  God  is  good." 

In  this,  the  first  serious  address  on  public  affairs 
that  Curtis  made,  there  are  indications  of  some  of 
the  most  distinctive  and  the  finest  traits  of  his  ora 
tory  at  its  best.  The  happy  expression  of  the  in 
fluence  of  the  season  and  the  place  with  which  he 
frequently  began,  the  vivid  and  inspiring  use  of 
historic  associations  fitted  with  aptness  to  the  pur 
pose  of  the  discourse,  very  jewels  upon  its  thread, 
but  beaming  a  steady  light  upon  its  object;  the 
stately  march  of  broad  recital;  the  solemn  and 
simple,  tender  and  stirring  appeal;  and  through 
all  the  sense  of  the  high  level  of  principle  and  con 
viction  from  which  the  speaker  surveyed  the  field 
of  fact  and  argument,  —  all  these  are  here.  There 
are  points  in  the  discourse  where  the  fine  restraint 
of  the  rhetoric  which  was  the  characteristic  of  his 
riper  years  was  not  attained,  and  there  are  signs 
that  his  subject  had  not  been  so  severely  studied, 
its  details  not  so  closely  subordinated  and  mar 
shaled,  as  was  his  later  habit.  The  logic  does  not 
fail,  but  it  is  not  so  sustained,  and  the  view  of  the 
hostile  critic  had  not  been  so  clearly  imagined  as 
became  his  wont.  Experience  and  observation  had 
not  done  their  whole  work  at  thirty -two,  but 
they  had  begun  it,  and  were  well  advanced.  With 


116  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

this  speech  the  party  of  resistance  to  the  extension 
of  slavery,  the  party  of  freedom,  knew  that  a  cham 
pion  had  taken  up  its  cause,  who  brought  to  it  not 
only  the  dashing  courage  of  the  cavalier,  but  the 
unyielding  firmness  of  the  Puritan ;  a  bright  and 
tempered  sword  flashed  upon  the  combat  in  the 
hand  of  one  who  could  not  turn  back  if  he  would, 
so  high  he  felt  to  be  the  behest  that  summoned 
him.  "The  fight  is  fierce,"  he  cried;  "the  issue  is 
with  God,  but  God  is  good." 

In  the  autumn  Curtis  was  fairly  enlisted  in 
the  "  campaign."  He  made  an  extended  tour  of 
Pennsylvania  for  the  state  election,  which  was  then 
held  in  October,  and  which  made  the  State  one  of 
the  most  hotly  contested  in  every  presidential  year. 
Returning,  he  spoke  frequently  in  Connecticut  and 
New  York.  Mr.  Rhodes,  in  his  recently  published 
history,  says :  "  N.  P.  Willis,  one  of  the  best  known 
litterateurs  of  his  day,  relates  how  he  drove  five 
miles  one  night  to  hear  Curtis  deliver  a  stump 
speech.  He  at  first  thought  the  author  of  the 
Howadji  'too  handsome  and  well  dressed'  for  a 
political  orator,  but  as  he  listened  his  mistake  was 
apparent.  He  heard  a  logical  and  rational  address, 
and  now  and  then  the  speaker  burst  into  the  full 
tide  of  eloquence  unrestrained.  Willis  declared 
that,  though  fifty-four  years  old,  he  should  this 
year  cast  his  'virgin  vote,'  and  it  would  be  for 
Fremont." 

Writing  October  31,  on  the  eve  of  the  election, 
Curtis  said  to  a  near  friend  :  "  I  shall  not  tell  you 


THE   CAMPAIGN   OF  1856. 


117 


of  the  great  struggle  which  is  advancing.  The 
election  is  but  an  event.  God  is  still  God,  how 
ever  the  election  goes  and  whoever  is  elected. 
The  movement  which  is  now  fairly  begun  will  not 
relapse  into  apathy  or  death." 


^x> 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  NOVEL   AND   A   LECTURE. 

ME.  CURTIS,  as  I  have  said,  was  married  in  No 
vember,  1856,  and  went  to  live  on  Staten  Island, 
where  his  wife's  father  had  a  spacious  home  with 
large  grounds.  His  first  child,  a  son,  was  born 
there  in  December,  1857.  His  home  life,  though 
constantly  broken  in  upon  by  his  lecturing  tours 
and  by  his  journeyings  for  the  delivery  of  political 
speeches,  was  always  happy,  peaceful,  the  source  of 
incalculable  comfort  and  delight.  The  following 
extracts  from  letters  to  his  intimate  friend,  Charles 
Eliot  Norton,  of  Cambridge,  will  give  the  reader  a 
glance  at  his  life  during  the  few  years  preceding 
the  great  campaign  of  1860  and  the  Civil  War :  — 

NEW  YORK,  June  17,  '58. 

Your  kind  note  floats  into  my  hand  just  as  I 
am  "  stepping  westward,"  for  a  fortnight.  I  go  to 
the  University  of  Michigan  and  Antioch  College 
with  an  oration  upon  '*  The  Democratic  Principle, 
and  its  Prospects  in  our  Country,"  with  every  word 
of  which  I  think  you  would  agree,  and  not  find  a 
single  thing  which  you  would  be  sorry  to  have  a 
friend  of  yours  say.  When  I  come  to  you  T  will 


A   NOVEL   AND   A  LECTURE.  119 

bring  it,  and  take  the  taste  of  some  other  things  of 
mine  out  of  your  mouth. 

NORTH  SHORE,  September  25,  '58. 

I  have  promised  to  deliver  my  "  Democracy  and 
Education  "  before  a  teachers'  institute  in  Newport 
on  the  8th  October,  and  I  shall  put  off  coming  to 
you  till  then. 

"  For  tho'  on  pleasure  he  was  bent, 
He  had  a  frugal  mind." 

What  else  could  you  expect  of  a  seditious  Sepoy,  — - 
a  Chairman  of  the  Republican  County  Committee, 
an  agricultural  orator,  and  your  most  affectionate 

G.  W.  C. 

On  his  return    from  this  trip  he  describes  his 

home-coming :  — 

10th  October,  '58. 

I  saw  the  receding  tower  of  Trinity,  and  pres 
ently  beheld  the  camp  of  the  army  of  occupation 
upon  the  wharf  —  who  but  she  ?  —  and  along  the 
Kills  we  drove,  while  I  talked  of  Newport  friends 
and  fields,  and  watched  the  autumn  waiting  for  me 
in  the  woods  and  on  the  flowery  hills.  All  were 
well.  The  boy  of  boys  —  the  man-child  —  shouted 
and  jumped  into  my  arms,  and  in  an  hour  he  was 
riding  behind  his  goat  with  his  mamma  and  papa 

in  waiting." 

8th  November,  '58. 

We  have  finished  our  fight  and  elected  our 
governor.  He  is  a  merchant,  an  average  merchant, 


120  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

but  our  congressional  majority,  which  shows  by  dis« 
tricts  the  complexion  of  the  State,  is  nearly  seventy 
thousand.  That  shows  a  change  of  heart. 

And  yet,  while  we  have  won,  the  one  thing  clear 
seems  to  be  that  Douglas  is  the  next  President, 
unless  the  Slave  party  offers  us  some  new  issue. 
We  cannot  beat  them  upon  that  of  Popular  Sover 
eignty,  upon  which  D.  will  make  his  stand  and  his 
battle.  . 

Next  week  I  begin  my  lecturing,  and  have  al 
ready  engaged  sixty  evenings. 

January  30,  '59. 

At  the  Burns  festival  in  Troy  I  led  off  Auld 
Lang  Syne  at  four  in  the  morning  and  hoarsened 
my  voice. 

March  2,  '59. 

I  am  glad  you  succeeded  in  amusing  your  little 
sister.  I  have  often  wished  she  were  here  to  join 
Master  Frank's  class  in  Little  Bo-Peep.  Don't 
stimulate  her  mind  with  too  much  House-that-Jack- 
Built  at  once,  but  lead  her  gradually  on  from  Cock 
Robin  to  Mother  Hubbard. 

In  September,  1859,  he  writes  :  — 

"  The '  Weekly '  now  circulates  93,000,  and  is  very 
thoroughly  read.  I  make  my  Lounger  a  sort  of  lay 
pulpit,  and  the  readers  have  a  chance  of  hearing 
things  suggested  that  otherwise  there  would  be  no 
hint  of  in  the  paper.  And,  after  all,  an  author  has 
something  besides  his  own  fame  to  look  after." 

It  was  in  this  year  that  Mr.  Curtis,  tempted,  I 


A  NOVEL   AND   A   LECTURE.  121 

imagine,  by  what  the  publishers  could  offer  not 
only  in  money,  but  in  the  security  of  a  very  wide 
circle  of  readers,  began  the  novel  of  "  Trumps  "  as 
a  serial  in  "  Harper's  Weekly."  It  was  not  an  un 
natural  venture.  He  was  a  lover  of  good  fiction, 
and  an  intelligent  critic  of  it.  He  was  in  the  very 
prime  of  his  manhood.  He  had  won  notable  suc 
cess  in  varied  directions.  He  had  seen  much  of 
the  world,  not  only  of  society,  but  of  affairs  and 
of  politics.  He  had  traveled  widely  abroad  and 
in  his  own  land.  He  was  a  welcome  intimate  in 
the  houses  of  gifted  men  and  women.  He  was 
conscious  of  the  possession  of  the  literary  faculty. 
Expression  fitting  the  thought  was  not  difficult  to 
him.  He  had  quick  and  sensitive  sympathies,  a 
sound  and  trustworthy  judgment,  and  his  fellow- 
beings,  of  all  sorts  and  on  all  levels,  interested  him 
much.  He  could  not  but  know  that  when  he  talked 
of  them,  of  their  character,  their  doings,  their  oddi 
ties,  adventures,  aims,  humors,  his  talk  charmed 
his  hearers.  Why  should  he  not  write  a  novel? 
Why  should  he  not  group  in  a  well-connected  story 
the  acts  and  words  that  should  reveal  men  and 
women  as  he  saw  and  knew  them,  not  forgetting 
the  lesson  of  the  supreme  value  of  goodness  which 
every  life,  good  or  evil,  disclosed  to  him,  and  of 
which  his  own  was  a  half -unconscious  reading? 
Why  cannot  the  eagle  swim  ? 

I  think  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  "Trumps"  is 
depressing  reading,  despite  its  many  excellences. 
It  is  the  fruit  of  an  author's  mistake  as  to  his 


122  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

powers.  It  is  Thackeray's  pictures,  George  Eliot's 
poetry,  Dickens's  portrayal  of  aristocracy.  It  shows 
how  many  and  how  great  gifts  the  author  had,  and 
how  little  he  had  of  the  rare  art  of  sustained  story 
telling.  Five  years  before,  Lowell  had  written 
to  Briggs  (he  had  just  said  of  the  "  Chateaux  in 
Spain,"  "  I  think  it  one  of  the  best  essays  I  ever 
read,  I  don't  care  by  what  author  ")  :  "  The  fault 
of  '  The  Potiphar  Papers'  seems  to  me  that  in  them 
there  are  dialogizing  and  monologizing  thoughts, 
but  not  flesh  and  blood  enough."  And  it  is  with 
"dialogizing  and  monologizing  thoughts"  that  the 
pages  of  "Trumps"  fairly  swarm.  The  title,  the 
intention  of  which  is  emphasized  in  the  last  sen 
tence,  shows  that  the  real  purpose  of  the  writer 
was  not  to  write  a  novel,  but  to  point  a  moral. 
"  Patient  and  gentle  reader,"  he  says,  as  he  closes 
his  work,  "  it  is  for  you  to  say  who,  among  all  the 
players  we  have  been  watching,  held  Trumps,"  and 
the  reader  is  expected  to  answer  that  Trumps  were 
held  by  the  benevolent  and  beneficent  Lawrence 
Newt,  and  by  that  heaven-born  vision  of  earthly 
beauty  and  unspotted  soul,  Hope  Wayne,  and,  as 
the  proportions  of  the  pack  allow,  by  the  lesser 
embodiments  of  kindness  and  purity  and  rectitude, 
and  that  all  the  low  cards  fell  to  those  who  were 
playing  for  self.  It  is  a  gracious  view  of  life,  and 
one  that  cheers  the  good  in  adverse  conditions, 
even  if  it  escapes  the  attention  and  leaves  uncor- 
rected  the  wayward  will  of  the  mean  and  wicked. 
But  this  naive  indiscretion  as  to  the  title  of  the 


A   NOVEL   AND   A   LECTURE.  123 

book  seems  to  me  to  show  the  peculiar  failure  of 
the  writer  to  grasp  the  cardinal  principle  of  his 
art,  that  the  moral,  if  moral  there  must  be,  should 
point  itself.  And,  worse  than  this,  the  title  does 
not  fit  the  avowed  purpose.  Trumps  are  the  gift 
of  the  gods.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  skillful  player  not 
to  waste  them  on  his  partner's  trick,  and  to  make 
and  take  all  the  chances  of  the  game  in  order  to  get 
the  most  good  of  them,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  an 
honest  player  not  to  supply  them  when  wanting 
from  up  his  sleeve.  But  to  find  them  in  his  hand 
when  the  deal  is  made  is  no  merit  of  his,  and  to 
miss  them  is  not  his  fault.  Now  the  lesson  of 
Curtis's  novel  is  clearly  that  the  reward  of  virtue 
is  in  great  part  earned,  and  not  a  matter  of  chance. 
The  joy  of  honorable  self-denial,  the  peace  that 
comes  from  generous  sympathy  with  the  good  for 
tune  of  others,  through  one's  own  loss,  —  these  are 
urged,  and  with  winning  earnestness.  They  are 
not  the  fruit  of  chance.  Indeed,  the  life  that  Cur 
tis  tries  to  depict  and  does  very  clearly  suggest, 
and  of  which  he  gives  us  most  engaging  chapters, 
is  not  in  reality  a  game  at  all,  neither  a  game  of 
hazard  nor  of  sport.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  — 
that  is  the  shortcoming  of  the  writer,  —  is  it  a 
drama.  It  is  a  modern  version  of  the  mediaeval 
"morality," — a  long  and  elaborate  lesson,  without, 
indeed,  the  tediousness  of  its  ancient  prototype, 
and  also  without  the  picturesqueness  gained  by 
that  from  the  very  concrete  notions  of  the  Devil  and 
his  conqueror  then  prevailing.  I  may  say,  I  hope 


124  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

without  offense,  that  it  is  in  its  general  effect  a 
Sunday  -  school  story,  written  by  *a  man  of  rare 
gifts,  some  of  which  betray  the  elusive  charm  of 
genius,  but  still  essentially  of  that  class,  producing, 
and  apparently  intended  to  produce,  the  impression 
that  in  the  end  virtue  triumphs  and  vice  comes  to  a 
miserable  end. 

Yet  there  are  the  materials,  the  raw  materials,  of 
a  strong  story  in  "  Trumps,"  and  the  writer's  con- 
ception  of  their  significance  is  vigorous.  The  bril 
liant  viciousness  of  Abel  Newt,  started  at  school 
and  developed  in  society,  in  dissipation,  in  politics, 
in  the  corruption  of  the  capital,  in  the  desperation 
of  the  culminating  crime ;  the  wasted  and  misdi 
rected  loves  of  the  two  sisters  whose  lives  are  shad 
owed  and  nearly  wrecked  by  one  man  ;  the  un 
disclosed  experiences  by  which  the  character  of 
Lawrence  Newt  is  moulded ;  contrasted  with  these, 
the  simple  and  sunny  life  of  Amy  Waring,  the  more 
delicate  and  remote  nature  of  Hope  Wayne,  the 
hopeless  final  kindling  of  real  affection  in  the  heart 
of  Abel's  mistress,  —  here  is  the  stuff  of  which  ro 
mance  and  tragedy  are  woven,  and  with  it  are  plen 
tiful  minor  threads  of  comedy  and  sentiment.  Nor 
can  I  resist  the  impression  that,  had  Curtis  taken 
up  the  study  and  practice  of  the  story-telling  art 
earlier,  or  with  a  firmer  purpose,  the  product  would 
have  been,  if  not  perfect,  not  only  far  more  satis 
factory  than  this  single  fruit,  but  of  a  marked  dis 
tinction  and  value.  There  are  few  more  real  fig 
ures  than  "  Prue  "  and  her  husband,  and  Titbottom 


A  NOVEL   AND  A  LECTURE.  125 

is  only  slightly  less  real.  But  I  cannot  regret  that 
his  energies,  great  and  efficient  as  they  were  ("  his 
mind  works  so  easily,"  wrote  Lowell),  were  not 
turned  in  this  direction.  He  might  possibly  have 
won  a  more  lasting  fame;  and  perhaps  a  wider  one. 
I  cannot  think  he  would  have  done  wider  or  more 
lasting  service.  He  could  not  seriously  have 
changed  his  aim.  He  might  have  attained  the  art 
that  makes  the  moral  point  itself ;  he  could  never 
have  really  forgotten  or  wished  to  forget  the  moral. 
The  highest  achievement,  I  take  it,  in  fiction,  cer 
tainly  in  the  more  modern  fiction,  is  the  impressive 
unfolding  of  the  complexity,  the  contradiction,  the 
pathetic  or  amusing  or  baffling  conflict,  in  human 
nature.  Perhaps  Curtis  saw  these.  I  doubt  if  he 
felt  them  with  the  intensity  and  depth  that  are  req 
uisite  to  embody  them.  Life  does  not  seem  to  me 
to  have  been  to  him  a  supremely  complex  problem, 
but  rather,  simple  with  the  simplicity  of  his  own 
rare  and  beautiful  nature.  It  is  delicate  ground  to 
traverse,  but  I  think  that,  as  his  own  conscience 
was  in  no  wise  a  Delphic  oracle,  but  spoke  to  him 
with  the  directness  of  Sinai,  — "  thou  shalt"  or 
"  thou  shalt  not "  —  he  may  easily  not  have  under 
stood  the  infinite  difficulties  that  men  less  morally 
gifted  meet  and  so  seldom  conquer,  not  always  be 
cause  they  will  not  do  what  is  right,  but  because 
they  cannot  decide.  And  again,  as  conscience  hav 
ing  once  answered  his  questioning,  his  obedience, 
if  not  easy,  was  singularly  certain  and  prompt  and 
steadfast,  he  may  not  quite  have  been  able  to  see 


126  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

or  to  portray  those  impulses  of  evil  before  which  a 
fine  nature  becomes  the  helpless  victim  of  passion, 
the  clearest  aspiration  toward  the  best  vanishes, 
and  the  soul  lies  weak,  weary,  defeated  in  the  tan 
gled  meshes  of  a  life  it  loathes.  He  might  have 
trained  himself  to  imagine,  but  I  believe  it  would 
not  have  been  easy  for  him,  the  multiform  effects 
of  circumstance,  of  heredity,  of  all  that  sways  the 
will,  which  are  so  important  and  so  fascinating  a 
part  of  the  creations  of  such  writers  as  George 
Eliot,  and,  with  less  betrayal  of  conscious  philoso 
phy,  of  such  a  writer  as  Thackeray.  And  since,  if 
he  had  worked  through  fiction,  his  aim  must  still 
have  been  what  it  practically  was  in  everything  he 
wrote  after  the  Howadji  books,  it  is  surely  best 
that  he  pursued  it  in  his  own  way.  This,  I  be 
lieve,  he  felt  strongly  himself.  He  did  not  regard 
"  Trumps "  with  any  great  satisfaction,  and  he 
never  renewed  an  attempt  which,  relatively  at  least 
to  others  of  his  own,  was  a  failure. 

Mr.  Curtis's  lectures  were  generally  received  with 
great  admiration,  and  his  welcome  was  almost  always 
cordial,  even  though  he  went,  as  he  did  frequently 
after  1856,  with  an  incendiary  address  in  his  bag. 
But  there  were  experiences  of  a  different  sort. 

In  the  summer  of  1859  Mr.  Curtis  accepted  a 
proposition  to  deliver  a  lecture  in  Philadelphia  on 
the  15th  of  December.  It  came  from  two  young 
men  who  had  planned  the  course  purely  as  a  busi 
ness  enterprise ;  and  though  Mr.  Curtis  chose  as  his 
subject  "  The  Present  Aspect  of  the  Slavery  Ques- 


A   NOVEL   AND   A   LECTURE.  127 

tion,"  it  was  a  mere  coincidence  that  the  Anti-Sla 
very  Society  of  Pennsylvania  was  to  hold  a  fair  at 
the  same  time.  In  October  came  the  raid  of  John 
Brown  npon  Harper's  Ferry,  and  on  the  2d  of 
December  Brown  was  hanged.  The  excitement 
roused  by  these  events  over  all  the  country  ran  very 
high  in  Philadelphia,  much  of  the  richest  trade  of 
that  city  being  with  the  South.  On  the  day  before 
the  lecture  was  to  be  given,  handbills  summoned  a 
mass  meeting  at  National  Hall,  where  Curtis  was 
to  speak,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  preventing 
him  from  speaking.  This  hall  was  in  the  upper 
part  of  a  building  the  lower  part  of  which  was  used 
as  a  warehouse,  into  which  railroad  cars  were  run 
to  be  unloaded.  Mayor  Henry,  though  not  in  fa 
vor  of  the  views  Mr.  Curtis  was  known  to  hold,  did 
not  oppose  the  delivery  of  the  lecture ;  and  Mr. 
Ruggles,  the  chief  of  police,  though  a  firm  Demo 
crat  in  politics,  declared  that  free  speech  must  be 
defended  at  any  cost.  Mr.  Curtis  went  to  the  hall 
accompanied  by  Dr.  Furness  and  Mrs.  Furness,  by 
Lucretia  Mott,  and  the  Hon.  William  D.  Kelley, 
who  introduced  him.  Approach  to  the  stage  was 
had  from  the  floor  by  a  narrow,  winding  stairway  on 
either  side,  which  also  descended  to  the  warehouse 
below.  These  were  blocked,  so  soon  as  Mr.  Curtis 
and  his  party  reached  the  stage,  by  benches  thrown 
one  on  another,  and  by  a  couple  of  members  of 
the  junior  Anti-Slavery  Society  armed  with  heavy 
sticks.  In  the  hall  a  policeman  was  stationed  at 
the  end  of  each  seat,  and  several  hundred  below 


128  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

guarded  the  entrances  and  the  warehouse.  Mr. 
Kelley  was  allowed  to  introduce  the  lecturer,  but 
the  latter  had  hardly  risen  when  rioting  began. 
Repeated  attempts  were  made  to  storm  the  stage, 
but  were  repulsed.  Stones  were  thrown  through 
the  windows,  and  bottles  of  vitriol,  and  one  of  the 
auditors  was  terribly  burned.  Meanwhile  there 
was  in  the  warehouse  below  a  series  of  determined 
and  furious  attempts  by  the  mob  to  get  to  the  hall 
from  that  point.  The  police  repelled  them,  making 
many  arrests.  At  first  Chief  Ruggles  sent  the 
prisoners  to  the  police  station  ;  but  soon  seeing  that 
this  weakened  his  force  too  much,  he  had  offenders 
locked  in  empty  cars  standing  on  the  tracks  in  the 
warehouse.  Two  attempts  were  made  to  set  fire  to 
the  building.  Then  Chief  Ruggles  mounted  a  car 
and  announced  that  if  this  were  again  tried  every 
effort  would  be  made  to  save  the  persons  in  the 
hall,  but  that  the  prison-cars  and  their  human  freight 
would  be  left  to  the  flames.  The  attempt  was  not 
renewed. 

Mr.  Henry  C.  Davis,  of  New  York,  then  a  resi 
dent  of  Philadelphia,  a  grandson  of  Lucre tia  Mott 
and  one  of  the  young  guards  on  the  stage,  from 
whom  the  above  recounted  facts  are  obtained,  says 
that  "  there  were  only  brief  intervals  in  which  Mr. 
Curtis  could  be  heard,  but  that  he  delivered  his  ad 
dress  in  full."  "  When  I  could  hear  him,"  says  Mr. 
Davis,  "  his  voice  was  firm  and  clear  and  resonant, 
and  his  delivery  sustained  and  self-possessed."  "  It 
was,''  says  Mr.  Isaac  II.  Clothier,  who  was  Mr. 


A   NOVEL   AND   A   LECTURE.  129 

Davis's  companion,  "an  eventful  and  dangerous 
evening,  but  the  meeting  did  not  break  up  until  the 
lecture  was  fully  delivered,  and  until  free  speech 
had  been  triumphantly  vindicated  in  Philadelphia. 
Mr.  Curtis,  with  all  his  well-known  gentleness  and 
sweetness  of  spirit,  proved  himself  on  that  occasion 
to  be  a  man  of  mettle  and  undaunted  courage." 


CHAPTER    XL 

THE   EVE  OF   THE   WAR. 

ONCE  entered  on  politics,  Mr.  Curtis  gave  to  it 
most  careful  study  as  well  as  much  hard  and  de 
tailed  work.  He  was  very  active  in  the  Republican 
party  organization  in  the  county  of  Richmond, 
N.  Y.,  formed  by  Staten  Island,  and  was  early 
chosen  chairman  of  the  County  Republican  Com 
mittee,  a  post  he  held,  with  the  greatest  assiduity 
in  its  duties,  almost  uninterruptedly  for  many 
years.  Evidence  of  the  clear  fashion  in  which  he 
reasoned  on  the  practical  as  well  as  the  theoretic 
side  of  politics  is  found  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  John  J. 
Pinkerton,  of  West  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  then  a 
young  man,  who  had  made  Mr.  Curtis's  acquain 
tance  at  Union  College,  on  the  delivery  of  the  ad 
dress  on  "  Patriotism  "  in  1857.  This  acquaintance 
ripened  into  a  warm  friendship  which  lasted  un 
shaken  to  the  time  of  Mr.  Curtis's  death.  The 
letter  followed  an  answer  to  Mr.  Curtis's  inquiry 
as  to  the  state  of  opinion  in  Pennsylvania  with  ref 
erence  to  the  approaching  presidential  contest. 

NORTH  SHORE,  13th  April,  1860. 

MY  DEAR  PINKERTON,  —  Thanks  for  your  kind 
response.  I  have  had  the  same  suspicion  of  Penn- 


THE   EVE   OF   THE  WAR.  131 

sylvania,  but  my  general  feeling  is  this :  that  the 
nomination  of  Mr.  Bates  would  so  chill  and  para 
lyze  the  youth  and  ardor  which  are  the  strength 
of  the  Republican  party ;  would  so  cheer  the  Demo 
crats  as  a  merely  available  move,  showing  distrust 
of  our  own  position  and  power ;  would  so  alienate 
the  German  Northwest,  and  so  endanger  a  bolt 
from  the  straight  Republicans  of  New  England, — 
that  the  possible  gain  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jer- 
, .ey,  and  even  Indiana,  might  be  balanced.  Add  to 
this  that  defeat  with  Bates  is  the  utter  destruction 
of  our  party  organization,  and  that  success  with 
him  is  very  doubtful  victory,  and  I  cannot  but  feel 
that  upon  the  whole  his  nomination  is  an  act  of 
very  uncertain  wisdom. 

It  is  very  true  that  there  is  no  old  Republican, 
because  the  party  is  young,  and  it  will  not  do  to 
ask  too  sharply  'when  a  man  became  a  Republican. 
Moreover,  a  man  like  Mr.  Bates  may  very  properly 
have  been  a  Fillmore  man  in  '56,  because. he  might 
not  have  believed  that  the  Slavery  party  was  as 
resolved  and  desperate  as  it  immediately  showed 
itself  in  the  Dred  Scott  business ;  this  is  all  true, 
but  human  nature  cries  out  against  the  friends  of 
Fremont  in  '56  working  for  a  Fillmore  man  in  '60, 
and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  human  nature  in  the 
public.  The  nomination  of  Mr.  Bates  will  plunge 
the  really  Republican  States  into  a  syncope.  If 
they  are  strong  enough  to  remain  Republican  while 
they  are  apathetic,  then  in  the  border  States  you 
may  decide  the  battle. 


132  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

I  think  New  York  is  very  sure  for  the  Chicago 
man,  whoever  he  is ;  but  if  Bates  is  the  man,  we 
shall  have  to  travel  upon  our  muscle ! ! 

Individually  believing,  as  I  do,  in  the  necessary 
triumph  of  our  cause  by  causes  superior  to  the 
merely  political,  I  should  prefer  a  fair  fight  upon 
the  merits  of  the  case  between  Douglas  and  Seward, 
or  Hunter  or  Guthrie  and  Seward.  I  think  Doug 
las  will  be  the  Charleston  man. 

Thank  you  once  more. 

Yours  faithfully, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

Mr.  Curtis  went  as  a  delegate  to  the  Republican 
National  Convention  at  Chicago  in  May,  1860.  It 
was  his  first  experience  in  those  vast  representative 
assemblies  so  peculiar  to  American  political  life, 
and  yet  so  firmly  established  in  it  that  it  is  not 
easy  for  an  American  to  realize  that  they  are 
without  a  counterpart  in  any  other  nation.  It 
was  a  field  calculated  to  bring  out  the  political 
capacity  of  any  man  of  ability  entering  it  with  a 
definite  purpose  and  willing  to  face  its  difficulties. 
In  theory  the  convention  is  absolutely  free.  It  is  a 
gathering  of  delegates  chosen  in  congressional  dis 
tricts  to  discuss  and  announce  the  policy  and  name 
the  candidates  of  their  party.  In  practice  very  im 
portant  limitations  have  grown  up.  Some  of  these 
are  almost  purely  physical,  and  spring  from  the 
nature  of  the  organization  necessary  to  the  perform 
ance  of  complex  functions  by  a  body  of  numerous 


THE  EVE   OF   THE  WAR.  133 

members.  Others,  however,  have  their  source  in 
the  inevitable  desire  of  men  intrusted  with  repre 
sentative  power  to  use  it  to  advance  their  own  views 
or  their  own  interests.  Though  the  Republican 
party  was  then  young  and  its  spirit  was  more  free, 
unselfish,  and  more  nearly  purely  moral  than  that 
of  any  other  great  party  that  had  preceded  it  in 
our  history,  it  was  not  without  leaders  actuated  by 
ambition,  by  appetite,  and  by  jealousy.  Mr.  Sew- 
ard,  then  United  States  Senator  from  New  York, 
was  the  "  logical  candidate  "  of  the  party  for  the 
Presidency.  His  eminent  ability,  his  long  and 
honorable  service  in  the  Senate,  his  breadth  of  view, 
his  courageous  and  enlightened  advocacy  of  the  es 
sential  principles  of  his  party,  his  political  sagacity, 
were  claims  that  could  not  be  ignored.  Mr.  Wil 
liam  M.  Evarts  was  the  chairman  of  the  New 
York  delegation,  and  presented  Mr.  Seward's  name 
to  the  convention  in  a  speech  of  great  force  and 
noble  enthusiasm.  Mr.  Curtis,  as  the  letter  just 
cited  shows,  believed  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Seward 
to  be  both  just  and  wise.  But  he  was  to  distin 
guish  himself  in  the  convention  by  a  most  bril 
liant  and  unexpected  assault  on  the  lines  of  Mr. 
Seward's  supporters.  These  were  led  by  Mr. 
Thurlow  Weed,  of  New  York,  a  politician  whose 
rare  qualities  as  a  manager  rested  largely  on  his 
instinctive  and  acquired  knowledge  of  the  weak 
nesses  of  his  fellow-men,  of  their  prejudices  and 
personal  desires,  and  who  was  not  fond  of  leaving 
much  to  the  unguided  impulses  of  a  convention. 


134  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

It  had  been  determined  that  the  declaration 
of  principles  —  the  platform  —  of  the  convention 
should  be  so  shaped  that  the  more  timid  and  less 
convinced  of  the  opponents  of  the  rival  party 
should  not  be  scared  from  its  acceptance  by  too 
radical  utterances.  Among  the  more  advanced  of 
the  Republican  leaders  at  Chicago  was  Mr.  Joshua 
R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  who  hoped  to  make  of  the 
party  an  instrument  not  only  for  checking  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery,  but  for  its  ultimate  extinction. 
To  serve  this  purpose,  he  proposed  to  add  to  the 
platform  the  words  of  the  preamble  of  the  Declar 
ation  of  Independence :  "  That  the  maintenance  of 
the  principle  promulgated  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  embodied  in  the  Federal  Con 
stitution,  '  that  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalien 
able  rights ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that,  to  secure  these 
rights,  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  de 
riving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,'  is  essential  to  the  preservation  of  our 
republican  institutions."  The  amendment  was  re 
jected,  and  Mr.  Giddings  in  despair  turned  to 
leave  the  hall.  "It  seemed  to  me,"  Mr.  Curtis 
afterwards  said,  "  that  the  spirits  of  all  the  mar 
tyrs  to  freedom  were  marching  out  of  the  conven 
tion  behind  the  venerable  form  of  that  indignant 
and  outraged  old  man."  He  rose  to  renew  the  mo 
tion  of  Mr.  Giddings.  A  writer  in  the  "  Boston 
Herald "  of  January  10,  1880,  gives  the  best  ao 


THE   EVE    OF   THE  WAR.  135 

count  of  the  scene  that  followed  that  I  have  been 
able  to  find.  Mr.  Curtis's  voice  was  at  first  drowned 
in  the  clamor  of  the  followers  of  the  managers :  — 

"  Folding  his  arms,  he  calmly  faced  the  uproari 
ous  mass  and  waited*.  The  spectacle  of  a  man  who 
would  n't  be  put  down  at  length  so  far  amused  the 
delegates  that  they  stopped  to  look  at  him.  '  Gen 
tlemen,'  rang  out  that  musical  voice  in  tones  of 
calm  intensity,  '  this  is  the  convention  of  free 
speech,  and  I  have  been  given  the  floor.  I  have 
only  a  few  words  to  say  to  you,  but  I  shall  say 
them  if  I  stand  here  until  to-morrow  morning.' 
Again  the  tumult  threatened  the  roof  of  the  Wig 
wam,  and  again  the  speaker  waited.  His  pluck 
and  the  chairman's  gavel  soon  gave  him  another 
chance.  Skillfully  changing  the  amendment  to 
the  second  resolution,  to  make  it  in  order,  he  spoke 
as  with  a  tongue  of  fire  in  its  support,  daring  the 
representatives  of  the  party  of  freedom,  meeting  on 
the  borders  of  the  free  prairies  in  a  hall  dedicated 
to  the  advancement  of  liberty,  to  reject  the  doc 
trine  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  affirming 
the  equality  and  defining  the  rights  of  man.  The 
speech  fell  like  a  spark  upon  tinder,  and  the  amend 
ment  was  adopted  with  a  shout  of  enthusiasm  more 
unanimous  and  deafening  than  the  yell  with  which 
it  had  been  previously  rejected." 

The  following  extracts  from  letters  to  his  friend, 
Mr.  Norton,  indicate  Curtis's  occupation  and  the 
tenor  of  his  thoughts  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year  1860,  marked  by  the  triumph  of  the  contest 


136  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

against  slavery  in  the  political  field.  In  response 
to  a  request  to  address  a  meeting  in  behalf  of  the 
Italian  cause  he  wrote  :  — 


June  12,  1860. 

Your  note  reached  me  at  sunset  this  evening  as 
I  stood  upon  the  lawn,  in  the  midst  of  green  trees, 
blooming  flowers,  and  the  fairest  fair.  It  was  the 
moment  to  be  asked  to  speak  for  Italy,  but  —  I 
must  stay  at  home.  I  have  made  several  engage 
ments,  near  at  hand,  to  say  something  for  Abra 
ham.  I  have  also  promised  to  deliver  a  Fourth  of 
July  oration  upon  the  Island.  I  am  putting  my 
hand  of  "  Trumps  "  into  order  for  the  printer.  I 
have  my  little  jobs  at  Franklin  Square,  and  I  have 
been  away  so  much,  and  my  home,  my  wife,  and  my 
boy  are  so  dear  and  lovely !  You  will  not  think 
that  I  love  Italy  and  you  less  if  I  cannot  say  yes 
to  you  just  now.  How  grandly  Garibaldi  stalks 
through  that  magnificent,  moribund  Italy,  each 
step  giving  her  life  and  hope  !  When  I  speak  of 
liberty  on  the  Fourth,  I  shall  not  forget  the  soap 
boiler  of  Staten  Island ! 

Under  the  elms  and  the  sassafras,  and  among  the 
thick  flowering  shrubs,  I  think  of  you  girdled  with 
your  sapphire  sea  !  Then  Nanny  and  I  jump  on 
the  horses,  and  gallop  through  the  woods  until  we 
can  see  it,  too.  I  wish  you  could  come  and  see  us 
here.  If  you  want  to  run  off  and  be  entirely  alone, 
won't  you  let  me  know  ?  Have  you  seen  how  uni 
versally  your  book  is  commended  ?  I  have. 


THE  EVE   OF   THE  WAR. 

3d  August,  1860. 

Have  you  read  Olmsted's  new  book  ?  It  is  the 
fchird  of  the  series,  and  completes  his  view  of  the 
slave  States.  It  is  a  curious  confirmation  of  Sum- 
ner's  "Barbarism,"  and  seems  to  me  about  the 
heaviest  blow  (being  true  and  moderate)  that  has 
yet  been  dealt  at  the  system.  It  shows  conclusively 
what  a  blight  it  is,  but  at  the  same  time  how  diffi 
cult  and  distant  the  remedy  seems  to  be.  It  is  the 
most  timely  of  books,  for  no  man  who  believes 
that  the  picture  is  faithful  would  be  in  any  manner 
accessory  to  planting  such  a  curse  in  the  territo 
ries. 

How  bravely  the  battle  goes  on  !  I  am  speak 
ing  a  good  deal  here  upon  the  Island  and  in  our 
[first]  district,  and,  although  I  shall  never  again 
have  the  sanguine  hope  of  my  first  campaign,  yet 
I  can  see  how  every  sign  promises. 

I  find  myself  looking  over  the  sea  sometimes 
and  thinking  of  Italy,  but  I  know  that  it  is  not 
Italy  I  look  at,  but  the  old  days  in  Italy. 

NOBTH  SHORE,  14th  October,  1860. 
MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  I  have  been  scribbling 
and  scrabbling  at  such  a  rate  that  I  have  recently 
cut  all  my  friends  for  my  country*  We  are  having 
a  glorious  fight.  This  State,  I  think,  will  astonish 
itself  and  the  country  by  its  majority.  The  signifi 
cance  of  the  result  in  Pennsylvania  is,  that  the 
conscience  and  common  sense  of  the  country  are 
fully  aroused.  The  apostle  of  disunion  spoke  here 


138  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

last  week,  and,  if  there  had  been  any  doubt  of  New 
York  before,  there  could  have  been  none  after  he 
spake.  Even  Fletcher  Harper,  after  hearing  it, 
said  to  me,  "  I  shall  have  hard  work  not  to  vote 
for  Lincoln." 

I  have  been  at  work  in  nay  own  county  and  dis 
trict,  and  the  other  day  I  went  to  the  convention  to 
make  sure  that  I  was  not  nominated  for  Congress ! 

I  have  been  writing  a  new  lecture,  "  The  Policy 
of  Honesty,"  and  am  going  as  far  as  Milwaukee  in 
November.  Here  's  a  lot  about  myself,  but  we 
country  philosophers  grow  dreadfully  egotistical. 
I  did  cherish  a  sweet  hope  (it  was  like  trying  to 
raise  figs  in  our  open  January !)  that  I  should  slip 
over  and  see  you,  and  displace  my  photograph  for 
a  day  or  two,  but  I  can  only  send  the  same  old  love 
as  new  as  ever.  The  ball  for  little  Kenfrew  l  was 
a  failure,  though  I  was  one  of  the  400,  —  and  his 
reception  was  the  most  imposing  pageant,  from  the 
mass  of  human  beings,  that  I  ever  saw. 

19th  December,  '60. 

No,  I  did  not  speak  in  Philadelphia,  because  the 
mayor  thought  he  could  not  keep  [the  peace] ,  and 
feared  a  desperate  personal  attack  upon  me.  The 
invitation  has  been  renewed,  but  I  have  declined 
it,  and  have  recalled  another  acceptance  to  speak 
there.  It  would  be  foolhardy  just  now.  I  am  very 
sorry  for  the  Mayor. 

There  must  be  necessarily  trouble  of  some  kind 

The  Prince  of  Wales. 


THE  EVE   OF   THE    WAR.  139 

from  this  Southern  movement.  But  I  think  the 
North  will  stand  firmly  and  kindly  to  its  position. 
If  the  point  shall  be  persistently  made  by  the 
South,  as  it  has  been  made  so  far,  the  nationaliza 
tion  of  slavery  or  disunion,  the  North  will  say,  and 
I  think  calmly,  Disunion,  and  God  for  the  right. 
The  Southerners  are  lunatics,  but  what  can  we  do  ? 
We  cannot  let  them  do  as  they  will,  for  then  we 
should  all  perish  together. 

The  political  fight  was  over.  The  party  of 
slavery  limitation  —  it  would  not  be  exact  to  call  it 
even  the  anti-slavery  party  —  had  elected  its  Pres 
ident,  and  held  a  safe  majority  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  The  men  who  had  brought  the 
fight  thus  far  were  called  to  face  a  wholly  new  sit 
uation,  one  that  they  had  not  clearly  foreseen,  and 
had  not  consciously  produced,  and  yet  one  which 
was  inevitable.  It  is  true  that  both  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  his  chief  rival  for  the  Republican  nomina 
tion,  Mr.  Seward,  had  declared  in  general  terms 
the  irrepressible,  irreconcilable  conflict  between  sla 
very  and  freedom  ;  but  there  is  little  probability 
and  less  evidence  that  they  had  formed  a  distinct 
idea  of  what  the  direction  or  force  of  such  a  con 
flict  would  be,  or  how  they  should  meet  it  if  the 
people  gave  them  the  power  and  imposed  the  duty 
of  meeting  it.  Moreover,  the  victory  they  had  won 
was  not  so  complete  as  to  force  the  problem  upon 
them,  or  even  to  enable  them  to  take  up  its  solu 
tion  in  the  ordinary  progress  of  public  affairs. 


140  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

The  Democratic  party  still  held  the  Senate  and 
the  Supreme  Court.  No  affirmative  legislation  was 
possible.  The  Republicans  had  elected  their  Presi 
dent  through  the  division  of  their  opponents,  and 
had  cast  less  than  two  fifths  of  the  popular  vote. 
Their  leaders,  therefore,  were  not  to  be  blamed 
that  they  had  no  plan,  nor  any  very  clear  principle 
on  which  to  frame  one,  for  the  complete  conduct  of 
the  government.  The  threats  of  secession,  which 
had  multiplied  and  become  constantly  fiercer  dur 
ing  the  presidential  canvass,  were  not  taken  to  be 
so  serious  as  they  proved  to  be,  and  were  perhaps 
not  intended  to  be  carried  so  far  as  afterwards  they 
were  carried.  The  few  words  last  quoted  from 
Mr.  Curtis  expressed  a  feeling  very  general  at  the 
time  they  were  uttered  and  for  some  months  later. 
When  South  Carolina  passed  its  ordinance  of  se 
cession,  and  one  after  another  of  the  Southern 
States  followed  her  example,  the  Federal  govern 
ment  was  still  under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  Buchanan, 
who,  whatever  his  motives,  —  and  they  are  not  now 
judged  with  such  severity  or  such  certainty  as  they 
once  were,  —  took  no  decisive  step.  The  public 
mind  was  startled,  puzzled,  and  could  not  know  its 
own  real  purpose.  The  first  impulse  —  and  it  was 
a  sound  one  —  was  toward  the  avoidance  of  civil 
war.  Rather  than  that,  "  Disunion,  and  God  for 
the  right." 

Early  in  January  came  Mr.  Seward's  famous 
speech  in  the  Senate,  —  a  speech  intended  to  bring 
the  minds  of  men  together,  but  which  appealed 


THE   EVE    OF   THE    WAR.  141 

only  to  the  calm  judgment  when  calm  judgment 
had  already  become  almost  impossible.  Mr.  Cur 
tis  received  it  with  eagerness.  "  I  hope,"  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  Norton  on  the  16th  of  January  from  Rox- 
bury,  Mass.,  —  "I  hope  you  like  Se ward's  speech 
as  I  do.  I  see  by  the  New  York  papers  that 
people  are  beginning  to  see  how  great  a  speech 
it  is.  Webster  had  his  7th  of  March  and  went 
wrong ;  Seward  his,  and  went  right.  If  you  don't 
agree,  load  your  guns,  for  mine  are  charged  to  the 
muzzle."  Nearly  a  month  later  he  wrote  to  his 
friend  Mr.  Pinkerton  more  fully  : — 

NORTH  SHORE,  llth  February,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  PINKERTON,  —  Your  letter  of  the 
18th  of  January  reached  me  in  Boston  while  I  was 
upon  the  wing,  where  I  have  been  ever  since.  I 
wanted  to  reply  at  once,  but  I  was  to  come  to 
Philadelphia  this  evening,  and  I  hoped  to  see  you 
and  say  what  was  too  long  to  write.  But  it  seems 
that  I  am  so  dangerous  a  fellow  that  no  hall-owner 
in  Philadelphia  will  risk  the  result  of  my  explosive 
words,  and  not  a  place  can  be  had  for  my  fanat 
ical  and  incendiary  criticism  of  Thackeray ;  so  I 
shall  not  see  you.  Four  words  in  Se  ward's  speech 
explain  it,  and  especially  "  justify  "  it,  as  you  use 
the  word,  —  "  Concession  short  of  principle."  Do 
you  ask  what  and  why  we  should  concede  ?  Mr. 
Adams  answers  ;  he  has  learned  from  history  and 
common  sense  that  no  government  does  wisely 
which,  however  lawful,  moderate,  honest,  and  con« 


142  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

stitutional,  treats  any  popular  complaint,  however 
foolish,  unnecessary,  and  unjustifiable,  with  haughty 
disdain. 

Those  sentences  of  Seward  and  Adams  furnish 
the  key  to  our  position,  and  the  wise  triumphant 
policy  of  the  new  administration.  You  have  no 
fear  of  Lincoln,  of  course.  Well,  do  you  suppose 
that  his  secretary  of  state  makes  such  a  speech 
at  such  a  time  without  the  fullest  understanding 
with  his  chief  ?  Does  any  man  think  that  the  plan 
of  the  new  government  could  wisely  be  exposed 
in  advance  while  the  traitors  had  yet  nearly  two 
months  of  legal  power  ?  Seward's  speech  indicates 
the  spirit  of  the  new  government,  a  kindly  spirit. 
Special  measures  he  does  not  mention,  saying  only 
no  measure  will  compromise  the  principle  of  the 
late  victory.  In  his  career  of  thirty-seven  years 
you  will  find  that  under  every  party  name  he  has 
had  but  one  central  principle,  —  that  all  our  diffi 
culties,  including  the  greatest,  are  solvable  under 
our  Constitution  and  within  the  Union.  And  the 
Union  is  not  what  slavery  chooses  to  decree.  It  is 
a  word  which  has  hitherto  been  the  cry  of  a  party 
which  sought  to  rule  or  ruin  the  government,  with 
out  the  slightest  regard  to  its  fundamental  idea. 
Now  the  people  have  pronounced  for  that  idea,  and 
now  therefore,  when  a  Republican  says  Union,  he 
means  just  what  the  fathers  meant,  —  not  union 
for  union,  but  union  for  the  purpose  of  the  union. 
But  you  say  he  subordinates  his  party  to  the  union. 
Yes,  again,  but  why?  Because  (as  he  said  two 


THE   EVE   OF   THE    WAR.  143 

years  ago,  when,  thanks  to  Hickinan  and  the  rest, 
the  Lecompton  crime  was  prevented),  because 
"  the  victory  is  won,"  the  peculiar  purpose  of  the 
party  has  been  achieved,  the  territories  are  free. 
Even  South  Carolina  concedes  that.  The  South 
allows  that  we  have  beaten  them  in  the  territories, 
and  they  secede  because  they  think  we  must  go  on 
and  emancipate  in  the  District  and  navy  yards,  and 
then,  from  the  same  necessity  of  progress  to  retain 
power,  emancipate  in  the  States.  Remember  that 
by  the  bargain  of  1850  New  Mexico  has  a  right  to 
come  in  slave  or  free.  Mr.  Adams  proposes  that 
she  shall  come  now,  if  she  wants  to ;  that  is  all. 
And  he  and  Seward,  and  I  suppose  you  and  I, 
know  perfectly  well  that  she  will  come  free.  Yet 
even  Seward  says  that,  while  he  would  have  no  ob 
jection  to  voting  for  such  an  enabling  act,  he  is  not 
quite  sure  that  it  could  be  constitutionally  done. 

I  shall  not  tire  your  soul  out  by  going  on,  but  if 
we  could  sit  for  an  evening  in  MacVeagh's  office 
and  smoke  the  calumet  of  explanation  and  consid 
eration,  I  am  perfectly  sure  that  I  could  make  you 
feel  that  Seward  is  greater  at  this  moment  than 
ever  before.  At  least  wait,  wait  until  something 
is  done,  before  you  believe  that  a  man  who  is  a 
Democrat  in  the  only  decent  sense,  —  who  believes 
fully  and  faithfully  in  a  popular  government,  who 
for  nearly  forty  years,  under  the  stinging  stress  of 
obloquy  and  slander  and  the  doubt  of  timid  friends, 
has  stood  cheerfully  loyal  to  the  great  idea  of  lib 
erty,  and  has  seen  his  country  gradually  light  up 


144  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

and  break  into  the  day  of  the  same  conviction,  with 
the  tragedies  of  Clay  and  Webster  before  him  per- 
fectly  comprehended  by  him,  with  a  calmness  and 
clearness  of  insight  and  a  radical  political  faith 
which  they  never  had,  —  wait,  I  say,  and  do  not 
think  that  such  a  man  has  forsworn  himself,  his 
career,  and  his  eternal  fame  in  history,  until  you 
have  some  other  reason  for  believing  it  than  that, 
when  his  country  is  threatened  with  civil  war,  he 
says  he  will  do  all  that  he  can  to  avoid  it  except 
betray  his  principles. 

All  things  are  possible.  Great  men  have  often 
fallen  in  the  very  hour  of  triumph.  But  my  faith 
in  great  men  survives  every  wreck,  and  I  will  not 
believe  that  our  great  man  is  going  until  I  see  that 
he  is  gone.  Indeed,  as  I  feel  now,  I  should  as  soon 
distrust  my  own  loyalty  as  Seward's,  and  what  can 
any  individual  say  more  ? 

Believe  me,  full  of  faith,  your  friend, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

In  one  of  the  crowded  days  of  that  eventful 
April,  Curtis  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton  :  — 

HOME,  17th  April,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  CHARLEY,  —  Night  before  last,  at 
eleven  o'clock,  the  loveliest  of  girls.  By  midnight 
I  was  wondering  to  think  how  glad  and  thankful  a 
man  may  be  even  in  the  midst  of  civil  war.  Frank 
is  perfectly  fascinated,  and  laughs  with  shy  delight 
as  he  calls  me  to  look  at  the  baby's  nose,  and  puts 


THE  EVE   OF   THE  WAR.  145 

his  finger  carefully  upon  the  little  soft  red  cheek. 
If  it  were  not  for  the  bitter  days  before  us,  I  should 
feel  that  I  was  having  more  than  my  share  of  hap 
piness. 

Three  days  later  to  the  same  friend :  — 

20th  April,  1861. 

Anna  and  the  baby  are  perfectly  well.  Her 
brother  Bob  and  my  brother  Sam  marched  yester 
day  with  their  regiment,  the  7th,  both  the  Win- 
throps,  Philip  Schuyler,  and  the  flower  of  the  youth 
of  the  city. 

This  day  in  New  York  has  been  beyond  descrip 
tion,  and  remember,  if  we  lose  Washington  to-night 
or  to-morrow,  as  we  probably  shall,  we  have  taken 
New  York.  The  grand  hope  of  this  rebellion  has 
been  the  armed  and  moneyed  support  of  New  York, 
and  New  York  is  wild  for  the  flag  and  the  coun 
try,  and  our  bitterest  foes  of  yesterday  are  in  good 
faith  our  nearest  friends.  The  meeting  to-day  was 
a  city  in  council.  The  statue  of  Washington  held 
in  its  right  hand  the  flagstaff  and  flag  of  Sumter. 
The  only  cry  is,  "  Give  us  arms  !  "  and  this  before 
a  drop  of  New  York  blood  has  been  shed.  What 
will  it  be  after  ? 

I  think  of  the  Massachusetts  boys  dead.  "  Send 
them  home  tenderly,"  says  your  governor.  Yes, 
"  tenderly,  tenderly  ;  but  for  every  hair  of  their 
bright  young  heads  brought  low,  God,  by  our  right 
arms,  shall  enter  into  judgment  with  traitors ! " 


CHAPTER  XII. 

IN  THE   MIDST   OF  WAR. 

THE  next  two  or  three  years  of  Curtis's  life  may, 
I  think,  be  told,  so  far  as  falls  within  the  scope  of 
this  work,  in  the  extracts  from  his  letters  that  fol 
low.  There  was  no  marked  change  in  his  occupa 
tions,  except  such  as  the  war  and  its  interests  and 
duties  brought.  He  continued  "  The  Lounger  "  in 
"  Harper's  Weekly  "  and  the  "  Easy-Chair  "  in  the 
magazine,  and  his  lecturing,  with  the  object  that 
we  know,  and  the  further  one  which  the  times  im 
posed. 

TO  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON. 

July  30,  '61. 

What  a  summer  it  is  and  has  been  !  That  no. 
thing  shall  be  wanting,  we  have  a  comet,  too ;  a 
comet  seen  last  when  Charles  Fifth  was  abdicating 
and  Calais  was  falling,  and  Elizabeth  was  coming 
to  the  throne,  and  Ben  Jonson  and  Spenser  and 
the  Dutch  William  were  alive,  and  Philip  Sidney 
was  a  gray-eyed  boy  of  two.  Can  you  see  all  that 
in  the  bushy  swash  of  the  comet's  tail  ? 

Winthrop's  death  makes  a  great  void  in  our 
little  neighborhood.  We  all  knew  him  so  well  and 
loved  him  so  warmly,  and  he  was  so  much  and  inti- 


IN  THE  MIDST   OF    WAR.  147 

mately  with  us,  that  he  seems  to  have  fallen  out  of 
our  arms  dead. 

Thank  Jane  for  her  most  welcome  letter.  Give 
our  dear  loves  to  your  dear  mother,  to  Jane  and 
Grace ;  and  may  God  have  us  all  and  our  country 
in  his  holy  keeping. 

TO  JOHN  J.  PINKERTON. 

NORTH  SHORE,  RICHMOND  Co.,  N.  Y., 
July  9,  '61. 

MY  DEAR  PINKERTON,  —  I  have  been  long 
meaning  to  say  how  d'  ye  do,  and  now  your  note  is 
most  welcome.  No,  I  stayed  at  home,  resisting 
several  very  tempting  calls,  nor  shall  I  be  lured  to 
any  college  halls  this  year. 

I  have  two  brothers  at  the  war,  and  my  wife 
has  one.  My  neighbor  and  friend,  Theodore  Win- 
throp,  died,  at  Great  Bethel,  as  he  had  lived.  Many 
other  warm  friends  are  in  arms,  and  I  hold  myself 
ready  when  the  call  comes.  I  envy  no  other  age. 
I  believe  with  all  my  heart  in  the  cause,  and  in  Abe 
Lincoln.  His  message  is  the  most  truly  American 
message  ever  delivered.  Think  upon  what  a  millen 
nial  year  we  have  fallen  when  the  President  of 
the  United  States  declares  officially  that  this  gov 
ernment  is  founded  upon  the  rights  of  man  !  Won 
derfully  acute,  simple,  sagacious,  and  of  antique 
honesty  !  I  can  forgive  the  jokes  and  the  big  hands, 
and  the  inability  to  make  bows.  Some  of  us  who 
doubted  were  wrong.  This  people  is  not  rotten. 
What  the  young  men  dream,  the  old  men  shall  see. 


148  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Well,  I  will  not  discuss  Seward  just  now.  I  do 
not  believe  him  to  be  a  coward  or  traitor.  Chase 
said  to  a  friend's  friend  of  mine  last  week,  "  Mr. 
Seward  stands  by  my  strongest  measures." 

I  should  like  greatly  to  sit  with  you  and  the 
P.  M.  and  the  D.  A.,  and  talk  the  night  away,  even 
if  the  newspaper  did  find  us  out  and  tattle  !  But 
I  can  only  shake  your  hand  and  theirs,  which  I  do 
with  all  my  heart. 

My  wife  sends  her  kind  remembrance.  We 
have  a  little  girl,  born  on  the  day  of  the  Proclama 
tion.  Yours  always, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

TO  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON. 

July  29,  1861. 

My  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  I  have  your  notes  and 
the  good  news  of  Longfellow.  A  week  ago  Tom 

Appleton  wrote  me  about  himself  and  L .  It 

was  a  very  manly,  touching  letter.  How  glad 

I  am  that  L is  not  crushed  by  the  heavy 

blow! 

No,  nor  am  I  nor  the  country  by  our  blow.  It 
is  very  bitter,  but  we  had  made  a  false  start,  and 
we  should  have  suffered  more  dreadfully  in  the  end 
had  we  succeeded  now. 

The  "  Tribune,"  as  you  see,  has  changed.  There 
was  a  terrible  time  there.  Its  course  was  quite  ex 
clusively  controlled  by  my  friend,  Charles  Dana. 
The  stockholders  and  Greeley  himself  at  last  re 
belled  and  Dana  was  overthrown.  It  may  lead  to 


IN   THE  MIDST   OF    WAR.  149 

his  leaving  the  "  Tribune  ; "  but  for  his  sake  I  hope 
not. 

As  for  blame  and  causes  (for  the  defeat  at  Bull 
Run),  they  are  in  our  condition  and  character.  We 
have  undertaken  to  make  war  without  in  the  least 
knowing  how.  It  is  as  if  I  should  be  put  to  run 
a  locomotive.  I  am  a  decent  citizen,  and  (let  us 
suppose)  a  respectable  man,  but  if  the  train  were 
destroyed,  who  would  be  responsible?  We  have 
made  a  false  start  and  we  have  discovered  it.  It 
remains  only  to  start  afresh. 

The  only  difficulty  now  will  be  just  that  of 
which  Mr.  Cox's  resolutions  are  an  evidence,  the 
disposition  to  ask,  "  Will  it  pay  ?  "  And  the  duty  is 
to  destroy  that  difficulty  by  showing  that  peace  is 
impossible  without  an  emphatic  conquest  upon  one 
side  or  the  other.  If  we  could  suppose  peace  made 
as  we  stand  now,  we  could  not  reduce  our  army  by 
a  single  soldier.  The  sword  must  decide  this  radi 
cal  quarrel.  Why  not  within  as  well  as  without 
the  Union  ?  Then,  if  we  win,  we  save  all.  If  we 
lose,  we  lose  no  more. 

August  19,  '61. 

I  say  these  things  looking  squarely  at  what  is 
possible,  looking  at  what  we  shall  be  willing  to  do, 
not  what  we  ought  to  do.  There  is  very  little  moral 
mixture  in  the  "  anti-slavery  "  feeling  of  this  coun 
try.  A  great  deal  is  abstract  philanthropy ;  part 
is  hatred  of  slave-holders  ;  a  great  part  is  jealousy 
for  white  labor ;  very  little  is  a  consciousness  of 
wrong  done,  and  the  wish  to  right  it.  How  we 


150  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

hate  those  whom  we  have  injured.  I,  too,  "  trem 
ble  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just." 

If  the  people  think  the  government  worth  sav 
ing  they  will  save  it.  If  they  do  not,  it  is  not  worth 
saving.  And  when  it  is  gone,  he  will  be  a  foolish 
fellow  who  sees  in  its  fall  the  end  of  the  popular 
experiment.  All  that  can  truly  be  seen  in  it  will 
be  the  fact  that  principles  will  wrestle  for  the  abso 
lute  control  of  the  system.  That  is  my  consolation 
in  any  fatal  disaster.  Meanwhile  I  hope  that  the 
spirit  of  liberty  is  strong  enough  in  our  system  to 
conquer. 

I  am  elected  a  delegate  to  our  State  Convention 
on  the  llth  September.  There  was  a  strong  effort 
to  defeat  me,  but  it  was  vain.  In  the  reorganiza 
tion  of  the  County  Committee,  the  opposition  tri 
umphed,  though  I  and  my  friends  were  unques 
tionably  strongest.  But  none  of  us  moved  a  finger, 
and  the  enemy  had  been  busy  for  a  fortnight.  We 
were  displaced  in  the  Committee  by  a  conspiracy 
based  upon  personal  jealousy  of  me  as  the  "  one- 
man  power  "  in  the  distribution  of  political  patron 
age  in  the  county.  I  am  not  sorry  at  the  result, 
for  the  post  of  chairman  was  very  irksome,  but  I 
am  sorry  for  the  method,  for  it  is  an  illustration  of 
the  way  in  which  we  are  governed. 

Don't  think  I  am  lugubrious  about  the  country, 
for  I  am  really  very  cheerful.  The  "  old  cause  "  is 
safe,  however  in  our  day  it  may  be  checked  and 
grieved.  The  heart  of  New  England  is  true.  So 
I  believe,  is  the  heart  of  its  child,  the  West.  We 


IN   THE  MIDST   OF    WAR.  151 

go  out  alone  to  fight  Old  England's  battle,  and 
she  scoffs  and  sneers.  "  The  Lord  is  very  tedious," 
said  the  old  nurse,  "  but  he  is  very  sure." 

23d  August,  '61. 

I  am  very  firm  in  the  faith  that  there  can  be 
but  the  government  and  anti-government  parties, 
and  then  that  the  Republican  party,  though  strictly 
loyal,  does  not  by  any  means  include  all  loyal  men, 
and  that  recent  political  opponents  have  a  right  to 
demand,  as  a  condition  of  concerted  action,  that 
some  of  the  candidates  shall  be  taken  from  among 
them.  Is  n't  this  exactly  right  ? 

7th  October,  '61. 

Well,  and  how  goes  the  day  in  your  heart? 
Mrs.  Shaw  had  a  few  lines  from  Mrs.  Fremont  the 
other  day.  It  is  fine  to  see  her  faith  in  her  hus 
band.  Can  there  be  any  who  do  not  wish  him  well 
and  hope  for  his  success  ? 

I  am  putting  down  some  of  my  thoughts  about 
the  war  in  a  lecture  upon  "  National  Honor."  It  is 
really  a  speech  upon  the  times.  The  Fraternity 
wanted  me  to  open  their  course  upon  the  15th,  but 
I  cannot  be  ready  before  the  29th  October.  Then 
I  shall  come ;  and  I  shall  see  you,  I  hope,  though  I 
do  not  know  that  I  can  do  more  than  front,  fire, 
and  fall  back. 

2d  December,  1861. 

At  the  Astor  we  saw  General  and  Mrs.  Fre 
mont.  She  seems  bitter,  I  think,  but  he  is  the 


152  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

same  old  simple,  winning  soul  that  he  always  was. 
He  is  perfectly  calm  and  sweet.  He  evidently 
thinks  the  administration  do  not  yet  understand 
that  there  is  a  war. 

HOME,  28th  December,  1861. 

The  New  London  business  was  utterly  dreary. 
The  audience  was  fair,  the  best  they  had  had,  as 
they  kindly  say  to  every  lecturer,  but  the  course  is 
a  failure.  I  came  away  at  twelve,  midnight,  and 
slept  and  waked,  cold,  back  to  New  York.  The 
wind  had  blown  the  water  out  of  the  Connecticut 
(high  old  Yankee  river  !)  so  that  we  lay  for  three 
hours  upon  the  shore.  I  was  not  very  sorry,  for  it 
prevented  our  arriving  before  dawn,  and  I  came  in 
upon  mother  and  E.  and  N.  at  nine  o'clock  to 
breakfast. 

I  have  just  read  the  correspondence  of  Seward. 
It  seems  to  me  admirable  and  honorable.  He 
puts  it  upon  a  true  ground,  —  that  we,  in  like  cir 
cumstances,  should  demand  reparation  and  apology. 
It  is  calmly  and  well  argued,  and  the  conclusion  is 
ingenious  and  masterly.  We  have  nothing  to  be 
ashamed  of.  Our  pride  may  be  wounded,  but  our 
honor  is  untouched.  The  third  and  last  trump 
card  of  the  rebellion  has  failed. 

24th  February,  1862. 

MY  DEAREST  CHARLES,  —  The  heart  of  thirty- 
eight,  although  of  course  frosted  with  extreme  age, 
is  yet  sensible  of  the  glow  of  friendly  emotion. 
When  Nannie  gave  me  the  book  this  morning,  I 


IN   THE  MIDST   OF    WAR.  153 

felt,  with  Coleridge,  "  And  dearer  was  the  mother 
for  the  child,"  the  wife  for  the  friend.  Or,  as  Emer 
son  has  it  in  his  poem  of  Etienne  :  - — 

"  The  traveler  and  the  road  seem  one 
With  the  errand  to  be  done." 

So  it  seemed  this  morning.  You  are  always 
thoughtful,  always  generous.  How  have  I  deserved 
such  a  friend  ? 

March  6,  '62. 

I  think  I  am  a  little  more  cheerful  in  the 
[Washington]  matter  than  you,  because  I  have 
rather  more  faith  in  the  President's  common  sense 
and  practical  wisdom.  His  policy  has  been  to  hold 
the  border  States.  He  has  held  them ;  now  he 
makes  his  next  step  and  invites  emancipation.  I 
think  he  has  the  instinct  of  the  statesman,  —  the 
knowledge  of  how  much  is  practicable  without 
recoil.  From  the  first  he  has  steadily  advanced, 
and  there  has  been  no  protest  against  anything  he 
has  said  or  done.  It  is  easy  to  say  he  has  done 
nothing  until  you  compare  March  6,  '61  and  '62. 

As  other  signs  of  the  current,  I  observe  these 
things  in  the  papers  of  to-day:  1st,  Mr.  Adams' 
speech  distinctly  saying  that  Slavery  is  the  root  of 
all  evil ;  2d,  Cyrus  Field,  a  stiff  old  Democrat,  re 
peating  it.  3d,  Prosper  Wetmore  introducing  into 
our  Chamber  of  Commerce,  he  an  old  Commercial 
Democrat,  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  John  Bright, 
the  eloquent  defender,  etc.,  of  freedom, —  a  word 
that  your  true-blue  pro-slavery  modern  Democrat 
shies  as  a  bat  shies  the  sun. 


154  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

All  the  omens  are  happy,  it  seems  to  me. 
For  what  is  it  but  a  question  of  our  national  com 
mon  sense  ?  and  if  that,  as  the  year  has  proved,  was 
strong  enough  to  smother  so  furious  a  party  spirit 
as  ours  in  this  country,  why  should  we  suppose  it 
will  fail  us  suddenly  ? 

25th  March. 

Fletcher  Harper  has  asked  me  to  take  into  con 
sideration  the  writing  of  a  history,  a  chronicle  of 
the  war,  to  be  illustrated  by  the  war  pictures  of  the 
"  Weekly,"  a  huge  (in  size)  book  for  popular  read 
ing,  and  to  be  especially  a  Northern  book,  to  show 
what  the  Rebellion  came  from,  and  what  its  end 
would  probably  be  !  That  is  not  bad  for  Mr.  Har 
per.  I  told  him  that  if  I  wrote  about  the  Rebellion 
I  should  want  to  write  a  proper  history ;  that  his 
work,  though  admirable  in  intention,  could  be  but  a 
4  job'  for  me ;  that  the  study  would  be  useful  to  any 
subsequent  work  upon  the  subject,  but  that  the 
public  never  could  believe  that  the  later  was  more 
than  a  hash  of  the  earlier.  He  said  that  I  could 
easily  do  it  in  three  months,  and  he  would  pay  me 
well,  and  begged  me  to  think  it  over.1 

TO   MISS   NORTON. 

June  11,  '62. 

Everything  is  so  soft  and  ample  and  rich  in 
form  and  color  during  this  month !  Yet  I  regret 
the  rain  that  makes  the  freshness,  on  account  of 
Mac  and  his  boys  before  Richmond.  What  a  pity 

1  The  hook  was  not  undertaken. 


IN   THE   MIDST   OF    WAR.  155 

that  we  have  not  a  hundred  thousand  more  men, 
so  that  everything  might  be  as  sure  as  speedy! 
And  what  a  tremendous  contest!  I  go  back  to 
Persia  and  Greece  and  Carthage  and  Rome  to  find 
its  parallels.  The  Rebels  are  as  united  and  sullen 
and  desperate  as  I  always  knew  they  must  be. 
They  hate  us  with  ferocity.  The  task  before  us  is 
greater  than  any  people  ever  was  called  upon  to 
accomplish.  Great  nations  have  conquered  and 
subjugated  others,  but  we  have  to  conquer  and  as 
similate  half  of  ourselves. 

TO   CHARLES   ELIOT   NORTON. 

18th  June,  '62. 

What  a  resplendent  summer!  How  densely 
rich  and  blooming  !  I  am  out  all  I  can  be.  This 
moment  A.  darts  in  and  out  again,  asking,  "  What 's 
your  hat  on  for?"  I've  just  been  pruning  and 
quiddling,  and  feeling  of  the  ground  with  the  roots 
of  the  Virginia  creeper  (no  allusion  to  McClellan), 
and  of  the  air  with  the  white  blossom  sprays  of  the 
deutzia.  I  am  grand  in  my  square  foot  principal 
ity  !  My  patch  to  me  a  kingdom  is,  and  that  elm- 
tree  !  (do  you  remember  it  ?)  my  prime  minister. 

Colonel  Raasloff  waits  to  see  what  Congress  will 
do  about  his  St.  Croix  proposition.  I  have  written 
to  him  that  it  seems  to  me  we  want  our  Southern 
laborers  where  the}r  are,  but  we  want  them  free,  and, 
until  they  are  so,  I  should  cry  godspeed  to  any 
man  who  wanted  to  escape  as  a  free  man  to  another 
country.  Consequently  I  shall  work  all  the  harder 


156  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

upon  public  opinion  to  hasten  the  day  of  their 
freedom.  It  is  better  they  should  be  a  "  free  rural 
population  "  in  their  native  land,  which  wants  their 
labor,  than  in  another  country,  is  n't  it  ? 

Colonel  Raasloff  says,  and  this  is  entre  nous, 
that  he  saw  Sumner  the  day  before ;  and  when  the 
colonel  said  that  the  war  would  be  long,  the  Sen 
ator  was  evidently  "  delighted,"  which  R.  says  he 
was  sorry  to  observe.  He  says  that  Speaker  Grow 
told  him  that  Congress  would  not  adjourn  before 
the  middle  of  July,  or  certainly  until  Richmond 
was  taken,  adding,  "  The  army  is  encamped  before 
Richmond,  and  we  are  encamped  behind  the  army." 

Fortunately  for  us  all,  Mr.  Lincoln  is  wiser  than 
Mr.  Sumner.  He  is  very  wise. 

26th  June,  '62. 

What  an  extraordinary  paper  by  Hawthorne  in 
the  "  Atlantic  "  !  It  is  pure  intellect,  without  emo 
tion,  without  sympathy,  without  principle.  I  was 
fascinated,  laughed  and  wondered.  It  is  as  un- 
human  and  passionless  as  a  disembodied  intelli 
gence. 

NORTH  SHORE,  Sunday,  3d  August,  '62. 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  who  is  responsible  for  this 
extremity.  I  do  not  blame  any  one  man  ;  the  diffi 
culty  is  ultimately  in  the  nation,  but  a  good  deal 
must  be  shouldered  by  those  who  so  attacked  Mc- 
Clellan  that  he  became  the  centre  of  party  combi 
nations.  I  think  that  he  must  soon  retire  from  his 
command,  for  the  faith  of  his  own  army  is  leaving 


IN   THE  MIDST  OF    WAR.  157 

him.  Yet  I  think  that  history  will  record  that  he 
was  a  faithful  and  devoted  citizen  and  soldier,  and 
that,  if  he  was  unequal  to  his  task  and  did  not 
know  it,  it  was  an  ignorance  he  shared  with  the 
most  accomplished  of  our  military  men,  and  with 
the  mass  of  the  people. 

The  country  seems  to  me  to  be  making  up  its 
mind  whether  it  will  own  itself  beaten.  But  I  do 
not  lose  heart,  although  in  events  there  is  little  to 
encourage.  I  cannot  believe  that  a  people  which 
has  shown  itself  so  singularly  ready  to  learn  what 
to  do  and  how  to  think  will  fail  in  this  crisis.  If 
the  government  continues  to  move  as  fast  as  the  na 
tion,  all  is  saved.  I  don't  know  whether  I  think  it 
will  or  not. 

NAUSHON  ISLAND,*  llth  August,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  Here  we  have  been  for  a 
week  to-morrow,  and  in  the  salt  sea  air  we  all  seem 
to  be  perfectly  well.  It  is  only  about  thirty  miles 
from  the  southern  point  of  Rhode  Island,  so  I 
breathe  my  native  Narragansett  air  and  am  electri 
fied.  The  island  is  about  eight  miles  long  and  one 
or  two  broad.  It  is  beautifully  broken,  with  superb 
beech  woods  rising  and  opening  into  bare  uplands, 
from  which  you  see  the  ©cean  or  Vineyard  Sound, 
and  again  opening  into  sunny,  grassy  nooks  and 
spaces  with  clusters  of  shrubs  in  which  the  deer  lie 
or  feed.  Day  before  yesterday  we  started  a  pair 
of  magnificent  bucks.  The  paths  and  dells  are  end 
less.  From  the  house  you  have  a  sea  horizon  and 

1  The  summer  residence  of  Mr.  John  M.  Forbes. 


158  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

the  entire  sky,  with  woods  almost  to  the  horizon, 
and  holding  azure  crescents  of  sea  (as  in  "  Maud  ") 
in  their  tops.  The  house  is  immense,  the  life  sim 
ple,  the  hospitality  unbounded.  To-day  the  gover 
nor  and  three  of  his  suite  are  here,  beside  ourselves 
and  three  or  four  other  visitors.  There  are  riding, 
driving,  rowing,  sailing,  shooting,  fishing,  billiards, 
dancing,  —  what  you  will.  You  join  the  doers,  or 
you  go  apart  and  do  nothing  or  mind  your  own 
business.  Mrs.  Forbes  is  incessantly  working  on 
preserves  and  comforts  for  the  soldiers,  and  we  all 
pull  lint  at  intervals.  I  have  been  reading  here 
Tocqueville's  "  Ancien  Regime."  It  is  very  calm 
and  wise. 

NORTH  SHORE,  25th  September,  '62. 

MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  I  hoped  to  hear  from 
you,  for  I  knew  you  would  say  what  I  felt. 

Coming  at  this  moment,  when  we  were  in  the 
gravest  peril  from  Northern  treachery,  the  proclam 
ation  clears  the  air  like  a  northwest  wind.  We 
know  now  exactly  where  we  are.  There  are  now 
none  but  slavery  and  anti-slavery  men  in  the  coun 
try.  The  fence  is  knocked  over,  and  straddling  is 
impossible. 

Now,  if  my  friends  nominate  me  for  Congress, 
I  shall  accept.  Success  I  should  like,  but  I  don't 
count  upon  it.  I  should  stump  the  district  and 
sow  the  seed. 

When  I  think  of  Wilder  Dwight  and  the  brave 
victims,  my  joy  is  very  sober.  How  the  country 
will  be  filled  with  mourning  as  our  victory  goes  on  I 


IN  THE  MIDST   OF  WAR.  159 

For  victory  it  must  be  now.  We  heard  of  Bob l 
through  Dr.  Stone.  They  were  both  in  the  thick 
of  the  fight  and  escaped  unhurt.  You  saw  the  ac 
count  of  our  brave  Joe.  Think  of  the  service  these 
soldiers  of  less  than  two  years  have  seen !  I  saw  a 
banner  of  Sickles's  brigade.  It  has  been  in  ten 
battles ! 

NORTH  SHORE,  6th  October,  1862. 

As  for  me  and  my  chances,  and  the  peace  of  the 
estimable  Jane,  —  which  is  the  only  peace  I  care 
for  just  now,  —  they  are  in  great  peril !  The 
"  outs  "  in  the  county  here  have  worked  like  bea 
vers  against  me,  who  represent  the  "  ins."  The 
free  and  native  citizens  of  the  island  (especially 
those  born  trans  mare)  are  resolved  that  a  foreigner 
shall  no  longer  carry  the  county  in  his  fob.  They 
beat  me  in  going  to  Syracuse,  and  they  have  elected 
an  anti-Curtis  delegation  to  the  Congressional  Con 
vention.  There  will  be  an  unofficial  delegation 
from  this  county  which  will  urge  me  upon  the  Con 
vention,  and  will  say  that  I  have  n't  the  delegation 
because  I  refused  to  work  for  it.  They  will  also 
say  that  I  shall  accept  if  nominated,  although  I  do 
not  think  that  the  nominee  will  be  elected.  If  they 
say  what  I  have  said  to  them  —  that  for  the  right 
kind  of  a  man  I  shall  do  exactly  as  I  should  for 
myself,  they  will  probably  secure  another  nomina 
tion,  —  because  the  convention  will  say  :  "  Let  us, 
then,  have  a  candidate  who  will  unite  Richmond." 
I  should  be  very  glad  to  be  nominated,  and  gladder 
1  Robert  Gould  Shaw. 


160  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

to  be  elected,  but  I  have  not  taken  the  necessary 
steps.1 

I  am  going  up  to  town  this  evening  to  dine  with 
Colonel  Kaasloff  and  Count  Piper  and  two  or  three 
more.  The  colonel  goes  to  China  immediately.  I 
shall  have  to  espouse  the  proclamation  and  make 
them  like  it,  which  they  do  not  yet. 

LOWELL,  December  10,  '62. 

I  had  a  very  large  audience  this  evening,  and 
the  lecture  was  admirably  received.  One  man 
said,  in  the  Cambridge  vein,  "  He  is  a  very  dan 
gerous  man,  he  puts  it  so  plausibly  !  "  An  Ameri 
can  says  so  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Declaration! 
You  see  there  is  work  before  us. 

NEW  YORK,  December  15,  '62. 

I  am  at  my  mother's,  —  a  house  of  mourning. 
On  Saturday  afternoon  my  brother  Joe  fell  dead 
at  the  head  of  his  regiment,  ending  at  twenty-six 
years  a  stainless  life  in  the  holiest  cause  and  in 
the  most  heroic  manner.  God  rest  his  noble  soul, 
and  grant  us  all  the  same  fidelity !  My  mother, 
who  has  felt  the  extreme  probability  of  the  event 
from  the  beginning,  is  as  brave  as  she  can  be ;  but 
it  is  a  fearful  blow.  She  does  not  regret  his  going, 
and  she  knew  the  risk,  but  who  can  know  the  pang 
until  it  comes  ?  2 

1  He  was  not  nominated. 

2  Joseph  Bridgham  Curtis  was  born  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  Oc 
tober  25,  1836.     Educated  as  a  civil  engineer  at  the  Lawrence 


IN  THE  MIDST   OF  WAR.  161 

December  28,  '62. 

This  will  be  a  crucial  week.  The  counter  pro 
clamation,  the  edict  of  emancipation,  the  opposi 
tion  of  Seymour  &  Co.,  and  the  mad  desperation 
of  the  reaction,  —  all  will  not  avail.  The  war  must 
proceed,  and  to  its  natural  result.  Even  Joseph 
Harper,  the  most  Southern  of  the  firm,  said  to 
me  yesterday,  "  The  negroes  must  be  armed,  and  if 
Seymour  does  not  support  the  war  he  will  have  no 
support."  Perhaps,  if  any  possible  way  of  settle 
ment  could  be  devised,  there  might  be  a  strong 
party  for  it,  but  in  deep  water  we  must  swim  or 
drown.  All  our  reverses,  our  despondence,  our 
despairs,  bring  us  to  the  inevitable  issue :  shall 
not  the  blacks  strike  for  their  freedom  ? 

February  6,  1863. 

Why  should  Dr.  Holmes  trouble  himself  about 
the  base  of  McClellan's  brain?  McClellan  has 


Scientific  School,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  he  entered  the  Union  ser 
vice  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1861  as  engineer  on  the  staff 
of  the  Ninth  Regiment  of  the  New  York  State  National  Guard. 
On  the  organization  of  the  Fourth  Rhode  Island  Regiment,  he  was 
appointed  Adjutant.  He  served  with  Burnside  at  Roanoke  and 
in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  regiment  was  cut  to  pieces 
at  Antietam,  and  fell  back  in  disorder.  Lieutenant  Curtis  seized 
the  colors,  shouting,  "  I  go  back  no  further !  What  is  left  of 
the  Fourth  Rhode  Island,  form  here  !  "  But  there  was  not  enough 
left  to  form,  and  Curtis,  for  the  rest  of  the  day,  fought  as  a  pri 
vate  in  an  adjoining  command.  He  was  made  Lieutenant-Colonel 
on  the  reorganization  of  the  regiment,  and  was  in  command  at 
Fredericksburg.  He  was  instantly  killed  at  the  head  of  his  men 
on  the  evening  of  the  battle  of  December  13,  1862. 


162  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

nothing  to  do  with  all  this  McClellanization  of  tlio 
public  mind.  The  reaction  requires  a  small  Demo 
crat  with  great  military  prestige  for  its  presiden 
tial  candidate.  The  new  programme,  you  know,  is 
a  new  conservative  party  of  Republicans  and  Dem 
ocrats,  and  all  mankind  except  Abolitionists.  It 
will  work,  I  think,  for  as  a  party  we  have  broken 
down.  I  blame  nobody.  It  was  inevitable.  The 
"  Tribune,"  through  the  well-meaning  mistakes  of 
Greeley,  has  been  forced  to  take  (in  the  public 
mind,  which  is  the  point)  the  position  of  W.  Phil 
lips,  —  the  Union  if  possible,  emancipation  anyhow. 
As  a  practical  political  position  that  is  not  ten 
able.  If,  by  any  hocus-pocus,  the  war  order  of 
emancipation  should  be  withdrawn,  we  should  be 
lost  forever,  beyond  McClellan's  power,  assisted 
by  John  Van  Buren,  the  "  Boston  Courier "  and 
"Post"  and  the  "New  York  Herald,"  to  save  us. 
There 's  nothing  for  us  but  to  go  forward  and  save 
all  we  can. 

February  14,  '63. 

General  Burnside  came  to  see  mother  a  day  or 
two  since.  He  spoke  with  utmost  respect  and  love 
of  Joe.  He  said  that  he  was  one  of  the  few  officers 
that  "  rose  "  in  the  fight ;  that  his  coolness,  valor, 
and  sagacity  kept  pace ;  and  that  he  would  have 
been  necessarily  a  distinguished  officer.  Dear 
boy !  I  see  his  calm,  sweet,  dead  face,  and  I  think 
of  his  lovely  life,  "  wrapped  sweet  in  his  shroud, 
the  hope  of  humanity  not  yet  extinguished  in 
him." 


IN   THE  MIDST   OF  WAR.  163 

TO    JOHN    J.    PINKERTON. 

February  17,  1863. 

The  fate  of  the  country  is  being  settled  in  this 
lull.  If  it  awakes  divided,  we  have  a  long,  sharp 
fight  before  us  all.  The  instinct  of  union,  if  not 
stronger  than  that  of  liberty,  in  this  people,  as 
Mr.  Seward  once  said,  is  yet  too  strong  to  be 
squelched  like  a  tallow  dip.  There  was  never 
but  one  government  that  merely  tumbled  down 
and  died,  and  that  was  Louis  Philippe's!  We 
are  too  young,  and  the  government  has  been  too 
long  consciously  a  general  benefit,  to  allow  such 
a  result  here.  Even  Vallandigham,  braying  to 
Copperheads  in  New  Jersey,  is  obliged  to  say  that 
he  is  for  union.  John  Van  Crow  has  jumped  to 
the  dominant  tune,  and  the  wayward  sisters  are 
rebels  to  be  put  down.  The  "  Herald  "  is  afraid 
of  the  "  Express  "  and  "  World  "  for  rushing  reac 
tion  into  absurdity,  and  plants  itself  square  upon 
war.  Bennett  told  Mahoney,  when  he  asked  him 
to  print  his  letter,  that  he  was  a  damned  fool. 

When  the  question  is  fairly  put,  "  Shall  we 
whittle  this  great  sovereign  power  down  to  a  Vene 
zuela  or  Guatemala?"  if  the  soul  of  the  people 
does  not  snort  scorn  and  defiance,  then  good-night 
to  Marmion. 

I  feel  steadily  cheerful,  and  yet,  as  you  know, 
I  am  a  traveler,  not  a  recluse. 

Do  you  mean  that  you  have  evacuated  West 
Chester  finally?  What  says  MacVeagh?  My 
friendly  regards  to  him  if  ever  you  write. 

Faithfully  yours,        GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 


164  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

TO  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON. 

llth  March,  1863. 

Not  only  has  the  reaction  consumed  itself,  but 
it  is  of  the  greatest  significance  that  the  result  is 
not  due  to  a  victory,  but  is  a  purely  intellectual  and 
moral  recuperation.  I  have  been  very  sure  that, 
when  the  Democratic  party  found  that  they  could 
not  operate  on  the  base  of  peace,  they  would  hurry 
over  to  war,  as  McClellan  from  the  Pamunkey  to 
the  James.  But  the  movement  shows  that  the 
strongest  and  most  sagacious  men  of  the  party  are 
its  old  Southern  leaders.  Jeff  and  his  friends  have 
known  from  the  beginning  that  it  was  a  war  of 
ideas,  which  had  exhausted  compromise  and  had  to 
fight.  The  Northern  Democrats  refuse  to  acknow 
ledge  the  truth,  but  they  are  forced  to  act  upon  it, 
which  comes  practically  to  the  same  thing. 

The  following  letter  refers  to  incidents  following 
the  draft  riots  in  New  York  in  July,  1863,  by  far 
the  most  exciting  experience  of  any  Northern  com 
munity  during  the  war.  The  disturbance  was  started 
by  an  attack  upon  a  building  in  which  the  provost- 
marshal  was  conducting  the  draft.  Most  of  the 
militia  were  absent  in  Pennsylvania  ;  there  was  but 
a  small  number  of  Federal  troops  available ;  the 
police,  taken  by  surprise,  were  for  two  days  able  to 
do  but  little  in  restraining,  and  nothing  in  repressing 
the  mob,  which,  with  the  usual  rage  for  plunder 
and  destruction,  showed  especial  fury  against  the  ne 
groes,  on  whom  atrocious  outrages  were  committed. 


IN  THE  MIDST  OF  WAR.  165 

NEW  YORK,  Juiy  19th,  '63. 

On  Tuesday  evening,  upon  an  intimation  from 
a  man  who  had  heard  the  plot  arranged  in  the  city 
to  come  down  and  visit  me  that  night,  and  find 
Horace  Greeley  and  Wendell  Phillips,  "  who  were 
concealed  in  my  house,"  I  took  the  babies  out  of 
bed  and  departed  to  an  unsuspected  neighbor's. 
On  Wednesday  a  dozen  persons  informed  me  and 
Mr.  Shaw  that  our  houses  were  to  be  burned  ;  and 
as  there  was  no  police  or  military  force  upon  the 
island,  and  my  only  defensive  weapon  was  a  large 
family  umbrella,  I  carried  Anna  and  the  two  babies 
to  James  Sturgis's  in  Koxbury.  Frank  was  with 
Mrs.  Shaw  at  Susie  Minturn's  up  the  river.  To 
day  I  am  going  with  him  to  Roxbury,  but  shall  re 
turn  immediately,  so  that  I  cannot  see  you.  We 
have  now  organized  ourselves  in  the  neighborhood 
for  mutual  defense,  and  I  do  not  fear  any  serious 
trouble. 

The  good  cause  gains  greatly  by  all  this  trouble. 
The  government  is  strong  enough  to  hold  New 
York,  if  necessary,  as  it  holds  New  Orleans,  Balti 
more,  and  St.  Louis.  There  must  be  a  great  deal 
more  excitement,  and  if  Seymour  can  bring  the 
State,  under  a  form  of  law,  against  the  national 
government,  he  will  do  it.  It  will  be  done  by  a 
state  decision  of  the  unconstitutionally  of  the  con- 
scription  act.  But  as  a  riot  it  has  been  suppressed, 
as  an  insurrection  it  has  failed.  No  Northern  con 
spiracy  for  the  rebellion  can  ever  have  so  fair  a 
chance  again  as  it  had  in  this  city  last  week,  with- 


166  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

out  soldiers,  with  a  governor  friendly  to  the  mob, 
and  with  only  a  splendid  police  which  did  its  duty 
as  well  as  Grant's  army. 

TO  JOHN  J.  PINKERTON. 

NORTH  SHORE,  STATEN  ISLAND, 
2d  October,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  PINKERTON,  —  I  wish  you  joy  with 
all  my  heart,  and  the  voice  of  -a  married  man  of 
seven  years  ought  to  have  some  weight  in  felicita 
tion.  It  has  always  seemed  that  my  fancy  was  fleet 
enough  to  outrun  the  fact,  and  yet  I  have  been 
always  distanced.  As  a  lover  you  think  marriage 
is  a  very  Paradise,  but  as  a  husband  you  will  feel 
that  it  was  the  beginning  of  life.  But  I  leave  the 
sermon  to  the  good  clergyman  who  will  breathe 
upon  you  the  heavenly  benediction  for  your  voyage. 
I  only  stand  on  the  shore  and  fling  after  you  my 
well-worn  marriage  slipper,  and  believe  all  that  you 
know  of  your  companion,  and  whistle  for  the  soft 
est  and  most  favorable  gales.  God  bless  you  and 
yours  always. 

Your  friend, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

TO  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON. 

15th  October,  1863. 

Whatever  is  happening  to  Meade,  let  us  rejoice 
over  Pennsylvannia  and  Ohio.  It  is  the  great  vin 
dication  of  the  President,  and  the  popular  verdict 
upon  the  policy  of  the  war.  It  gives  one  greater 


IN   THE   MIDST   OF  WAR.  167 

joy  than  any  event  which  has  lately  happened.  Is 
it  not  the  sign  of  the  final  disintegration  of  that 
rotten  mass  known  as  the  Democratic  party?  In 
this  State  we  have  sloughed  off  the  name  Republi 
can  and  are  known  as  the  Union  party.  How  glad 
I  am  that  we  can  gladly  bear  that  name,  and  that 
the  Union  at  last  means  what  it  was  intended  by 
the  wisest  and  the  best  of  our  fathers  Iko  mean  ! 

24th  October,  1863. 

What  a  splendid  succession  to  the  editorship  of 
the  ancient  quarterly !  The  great  literary  question 
of  this  epoch  in  my  mind  has  always  been,  who  pays 
for  the  "  North  American  "  ?  (I  do  not  mean  the 
writers,  dear  Mr.  Editor,  but  the  running  expenses 
of  the  institution).  I  am  sincerely  glad  that  you 
and  Lowell  have  taken  it  in  hand,  but  my  own 
are  so  full  that  I  cannot  promise  you  anything,  now 
at  least.  I  am  at  another  lecture,  and  rewriting 
my  oration  of  September  1,  and  am  speaking  here 
abouts  in  the  canvass,  and  go  to  a  Loyal  League  on 
Monday  evening  in  Bridgeport  and  keep  the  mill 
going  pretty  steadily.  I  have  a  busy  winter  of 
lecturing  before  me." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

EDITOR  OF  "HARPER'S  WEEKLY." 

IN  1863  —  I  have  not  been  able  to  fix  the  exact 
—  Mr.  Curtis  became  the  political  editor  of 
"  Harper's  Weekly."  His  relations  with  Harper 
&  Brothers  had  always  been  intimate  and  cordial. 
They  had  published  his  books ;  he  had  for  nearly 
ten  years  been  a  regular  writer  for  the  Monthly, 
and  later  for  the  Weekly.  Fletcher  Harper,  in 
whose  charge  were  the  periodicals,  had  long  been  a 
trusted  and  beloved  friend  and  adviser.  The  Weekly 
was  then,  as  it  is  still,  the  most  important  illustrated 
paper  of  the  country,  and  had  a  very  large  num 
ber  of  readers.  Before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  its 
tone  in  politics  had  been  conservative  and  mild,  so 
that  it  was  the  habit  of  the  "  Tribune  "  in  its  more 
radical  moods  —  the  moods  of  that  journal  were  by 
no  means  consistently  radical  —  to  speak  of  Har 
per's  as  a  "  Journal  of  Weakly  Civilization,"  a  mot 
which  in  those  hot  times  had  much  vogue.  When, 
however,  slavery  led  to  secession,  and  secession  to 
rebellion,  the  Weekly  gave  to  the  government  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  to  the  Union  Republican  party 
hearty  support.  Mr.  Curtis  took  control  as  editor 
with  a  perfectly  clear  understanding,  equally  hon- 


EDITOR   OF  HARPER'S  WEEKLY.  169 

orable  to  him  and  to  the  publishers,  that  he  was  to 
have  entire  independence.  He  could  not  otherwise 
have  taken  it  at  all,  nor  could  he  have  made  of  the 
journal  the  power  that  it  became.  At  first  and  for 
some  time  he  did  only  a  part  of  the  writing  for  the 
editorial  page,  but  gradually  did  more  and  more 
until,  for  some  years  before  his  death,  except  in 
rare  instances  (chiefly  when  he  was  ill),  the  entire 
page  was  from  his  pen.  He  retained  his  home  on 
Staten  Island,  and  could  never  be  persuaded,  though 
often  urged,  to  remove  to  the  city.  Doubtless  it  was 
the  better  plan.  He  lost  something  in  absence  from 
the  daily  intercourse  with  men,  and  the  daily  parti 
cipation  in  affairs,  but  he  gained  more  in  the  dispo 
sition  of  his  time,  which  was  always  urgently  occu 
pied,  leaving  him  but  very  little  that  could  be  called 
leisure.  His  semi-rural  life  also  gave  him  two 
privileges  of  the  greatest  value  to  him,  —  a  certain 
amount  of  seclusion  with  his  family,  safe  from  the 
incessant  and  consuming  interruptions  almost  inevi 
table  in  the  city,  and  a  certain  amount  of  unforced 
intercourse  with  nature,  and  these  counted  for  much 
in  that  fine  serenity  of  character,  that  calmness 
wedded  to  vigor  in  his  spirit,  which  marked  him 
as  a  man  apart  in  the  strenuous  times  in  which  his 
part  was  so  large,  so  important,  and  so  exacting. 

In  one  sense,  the  taking  of  the  editorship  of  the 
Weekly  was  a  decisive  step  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Cur 
tis.  He  did  not  and  could  not  cease  to  be  a  man 
of  letters,  a  student,  and  in  certain  broad  fields  a 
scholar.  His  writing  in  the  "  Easy-Chair,"  which 


GEORGE  »r//  /  /.i.i/  crxris. 

of  itself  sutneed  to  till  a  volume  each  year,  contin 
ued  and  was  purely  literary.  Some  of  his  editorial 
writing  was  almost  equally  so,  ami  all  of  it  was  ex 
ecuted  with  sustained  fidelity  to  his  literary  stand 
ard,  so  far  as  conditions  permitted  :  and  his  stand 
ard  was  hin'h.  He  was  still  to  produce  that  series  of 
orations,  some  of  which  that  on  Bryant,  that  on 
Lowell,  that  on  the  unveiling-  of  the  statue  of  Wash 
ington,  that  at  (iettysburg —  have  a  very  high 
value,  and  must  always  have,  wholly  apart  from  the 
charm  or  impressiveuess  of  their  delivery.  But 
from  this  time  on,  his  chief  interest  and  occupation 
were  to  be  with  the  public  affairs  of  the  time,  and, 
indeed,  of  the  day  ;  he  was  in  the  movement  of  his 
eouutrv,  shared  it,  was  swayed  by  it,  and  in  no  small 
decree  contributed  to  its  direction. 

The  readers  he  addressed  were  far  more  numer 
ous  than  books  could  reach,  but  what  he  said  to 
them  was  necessarily  briefly  said,  generally  for  a 
specific  purpose,  often  a  temporary  one,  on  matters 
of  supreme  moment  at  the  time,  often  also  of  endur 
ing  interest,  but  demanding  instant  action  which 
he  sought  to  influence.  The  editor  of  even  a  weekly 
journal  is  rather  a  talker  than  a  writer.  He  keeps 
up  a  continual  one-sided  conversation  on  whatever 
he  deems  of  greatest  immediate  concern,  and  his 
subjects  may  be  of  infinite  variety,  but  none  of 
them  can  at  any  one  time  be  treated  completely,  or 
with  any  detailed  preparation. 

Mr.  Curtis,  moreover,  was  active  in  the  affairs 
he  discussed,  and  his  action  and  his  writing,  witi 


KI)IT(Ht    01'    //.1A'/'AA",S    II' /•;/•;  A' A)'.  171 

a  common  object  of  the  most  absorbing  nature, 
left  liim  scant  time  for  purely  scholarly  pursuits. 
From  time  to  time,  as  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  there  came,  to  him  pressing  suggestions  and 
solicitations  for  historical  and  biographical  work 
that  would  have  given  scope  for  the  more  sustained 
exercise  of  his  literary  powers;  but  lie  put  them 
aside,  not  without  reluctance,  and  even  something 
of  the  despairing  pang  that  the  strong  man  must 
feel  in  the  presence  of  the  relentless  limitations  of 
time,  but  with  firmness.  He  had  chosen  his  path 
way  with  the  conscientious  care  and  deliberation 
that  in  him  were  both  native  and  cultivated,  and 
no  considerations  less  strong  or  worthy  than  those* 
that  had  determined  his  choice  could  swerve  him 
from  it. 

Mr.  Curtis  entered  on  the  editorship  of  the 
Weekly  at  the  crisis  of  the  War  for  the  I'liion. 
Gettysburg  had  been  fought  and  won,  Vicksburg 
had  fallen,  Sherman  in  the  West  and  (irant  in  the, 
Batt  Were  about  to  enter  on  that  tremendous  series 
of  movements  and  battles  between  the  slowly  con 
verging  forc.es  of  which  the  rebellion  was  to  be 
crushed.  The  proclamation  of  emancipation  had 
determined  the  purpose  of  the  final  struggle  on 
both  sides,  and  what  the  issue  must  be  if  the  gov 
ernment  should  succeed.  Mr.  Curtis,  and  those 
who  with  him  had  felt  that  the  war  was  in  reality 
resistance  to  the  aggressions  of  slavery,  felt  now 
that  the  enemy  was  unmasked,  and  pursued  their 
course  with  a  deeper  determination  and  more  ex 


172  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

alted  courage.  On  the  other  hand,  the  opposition 
to  the  government,  though  on  the  whole  much  weak 
ened,  was  intensified  and  embittered.  The  senti 
ment  of  distrust  and  dislike  of  "  radicalism,"  bred 
of  long  party  association  with  the  South  when  it 
dominated  the  government  and  controlled  the  hon 
ors  and  profits  of  politics,  became  more  sullen  and 
implacable.  The  burdens  of  the  war  were  heavy. 
The  conscription  for  the  army,  harsh  enough  where 
it  was  honestly  made,  and  rendered  often  odious  by 
the  corruption  to  which  the  provision  for  filling 
state  quotas  by  counties  gave  rise,  spread  an  angry 
suspicion  throughout  the  country,  especially  in  the 
larger  cities  of  the  East,  of  which  the  politicians  of 
the  opposition  were  quick  to  avail  themselves.  The 
possibility  of  foreign  complications,  and  the  almost 
hopeless  difficulty  of  contending  with  them  if  they 
should  occur,  were  plain  enough  to  the  most  san 
guine.  The  confusion  in  the  national  councils,  and 
particularly  in  Congress,  inseparable  from  the  vast- 
ness,  the  stress,  and  the  novelty  of  the  situation,  was 
obvious.  Mr.  Lincoln's  term  was  drawing  to  a 
close,  and  the  occurrence  of  a  presidential  election 
in  the  midst  of  civil  war,  with  all  its  tremendous 
possible  consequences,  was  an  ordeal  which  patriot 
ism  and  faith  could  face,  but  as  to  which  wisdom 
and  experience  could  give  no  ray  of  hope  or  guid 
ance. 

In  this  situation  the  work  undertaken  by  Mr= 
Curtis  was  of  the  highest  importance.  He  proved 
from  the  outset  well  fitted  for  it,  and,  though  he 


EDITOR   OF  HARPERS  WEEKLY.  173 

felt  profoundly  the  responsibility  imposed  by  it,  this 
rather  steadied  and  impelled  than  dismayed  him. 
The  work  was  to  be  done ;  the  need  of  it  was  instant 
and  incessant.  His  general  ideas  of  the  purpose  of 
the  war,  the  policy  of  the  government,  the  duty  of 
the  citizen,  were  well  defined.  In  their  application 
to  the  questions  of  the  hour,  as  they  presented  them 
selves,  he  developed  a  soundness  of  judgment,  and 
a  capacity  for  persuasive  and  convincing  argument, 
that  nothing  in  his  previous  career  had  indicated. 
His  editorial  style,  though  with  time  and  practice 
it  was  developed,  was  from  the  first  peculiarly  indi 
vidual,  and  so  entirely  unlike  any  other  that  at  any 
time  for  thirty  years  a  stray  quotation  from  "  Har 
per's  Weekly  "  could  easily  be  recognized  by  an  ha 
bitual  reader.  And  yet  it  was  curiously  unlike  Mr. 
Curtis's  style  in  any  other  line.  It  rarely  betrayed 
the  eloquence  of  the  orator,  the  charm  of  the  essay 
ist,  or  the  wit  and  grace  and  fancy  of  the  humorist. 
It  was  extremely  simple,  direct,  clear,  and  some 
times  even  homely.  I  have  spoken  of  the  editor  as 
a  talker.  Mr.  Curtis's  editorials  are  an  admirable 
example  of  the  excellence  to  which  talking  of  this 
kind  can  attain.  He  seemed  to  have  his  reader  as 
clearly  in  his  mind  as  if  he  were  sitting  before  him, 
and  he  reasoned  with  him,  appealed  to  him,  sug 
gested  to  him,  as  he  would  have  done  had  their  eyes 
met.  And  the  editor  did  not  make  the  mistake 
<ji  either  overrating  or  underrating  the  person  to 
whom  he  addressed  himself.  I  have  sometimes 
thought  that  this  imaginary  companion  was  con- 


174  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

ceived  by  him  with  a  very  serious  reference  to  the 
character  of  the  Weekly  as  it  was  when  he  took 
charge  of  it,  and  that  his  typical  reader  was  one 
who  primarily  liked  to  look  at  pictures,  and  whose 
interest,  thus  attracted,  was  to  be  directed  by  the 
writer.  Then  Mr.  Curtis,  with  all  his  unusual  gifts, 
had  at  heart  a  deep  and  wholesome  sympathy  with 
men.  Separated  from  the  great  body  of  them  as 
he  was,  and,  so  far  as  these  gifts  were  concerned, 
raised  above  them,  he  never  betrayed  a  sign  that 
he  felt  either  separate  or  superior.  The  reason 
and  conscience,  the  patriotism,  self-respect,  fair 
ness,  common  sense,  to  which  he  appealed,  were 
the  qualities  of  which  he  was  conscious  in  himself, 
and  which  he  wi^h  perfect  sincerity  attributed  to 
others. 

A  familiar  form  of  Mr.  Curtis's  way  of  putting 
things  in  his  editorials  was  by  questions.  These  he 
used  with  good  effect.  They  were  not  artful,  and 
were  not  often  sarcastic.  They  seemed  to  be  the 
natural  development  of  the  reasoning  that  had  con 
vinced  him,  and  they  served  the  double  purpose  of 
awakening  the  reader's  interest  and  guiding  his 
mental  processes.  Fromentin,  the  keenest  and 
clearest  of  analysts  in  his  own  domain,  says  of  the 
art  of  painting  that  it  "  is  but  the  art  of  expressing 
the  invisible  by  the  visible."  This  subtle  defini 
tion  appears  to  me  to  apply  to  Mr.  Curtis's  edito 
rial  writing.  The  principles  he  sought  to  apply 
were  thought  out  by  him  with  the  utmost  care. 
The  particular  cases  of  their  application  were 


EDITOR  OF  HARPER'S  WEEKLY.  175 

searchingly  studied  and  maturely  considered.  He 
had  a  sort  of  personal  fondness  for  the  opposite 
side  to  his  own,  and  was  constantly  making  a 
better  statement  of  it  than  that  of  his  opponents. 
He  brought  to  the  discussion  of  the  public  affairs 
of  the  hour  a  wealth  of  knowledge,  historical,  con 
temporary,  practical,  and  a  thoroughness  of  reflec 
tion,  which  are  unusual  even  with  writers  of  the 
most  deliberate  and  elaborate  kind.  One  has  but 
to  read  his  orations  to  find  the  evidence  of  these 
qualities,  and  of  the  skill  with  which  he  could  mar 
shal  a  long  array  of  facts  in  support  of  a  logical 
conclusion.  In  "Harper's  Weekly"  he  gave  us 
the  fruit  of  these  capacities,  but  rarely  any  sign 
of  them  in  exercise.  The  simplest-minded  reader 
could  feel  the  force  of  his  reasoning ;  only  the 
more  highly  trained  could  understand  from  what 
deep  and  widely-fed  sources  that  force  was  supplied. 
It  is  a  natural  question  whether  the  journal  af 
forded  the  best  field  for  the  use  of  such  powers, 
and  whether  they  might  not  better  have  been  di 
rected  where  their  possessor  would  have  been  more 
conspicuously  recognized  and  his  achievements  more 
splendid.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  answer  the 
question.  I  am  restrained,  at  the  outset,  by  my 
knowledge  of  the  conscientiousness  with  which  Mr. 
Curtis  decided  his  own  course,  and  of  the  gen 
eral  soundness  of  his  judgment.  I  can  only  say 
that  the  influence  he  exerted  in  the  direction  of  his 
aims  —  and  we  know  how  high  these  were  —  must 
have  been  very  great.  When  from  time  to  time 


176  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

on  rare  occasions  his  name  came  before  the  coun 
try  in  a  way  to  call  out  public  sentiment,  he  was 
overwhelmed  with  grateful  surprise  at  the  depth 
and  extent  of  the  respect,  the  confidence  and  the 
affection  he  had,  all  unconsciously,  inspired.  These 
would  have  been  a  rich  capital  for  him  in  public 
life,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  that  capital  would 
have  increased  and  multiplied  in  any  place  of 
power  and  responsibility  that  could  have  come  to 
him.  But  the  public  feeling  toward  him  was  but 
a  faint  indication  of  the  influence  he  really  exerted 
in  "Harper's  Weekly,"  for  only  a  very  small  num 
ber  of  the  tens  of  thousands,  often  the  hundreds 
of  thousands,  to  whom  he  spoke  week  by  week 
for  almost  thirty  years,  associated  his  name  with 
his  writing,  or  had  the  dimmest  knowledge  of  his 
personality.  The  sentiment  that  at  intervals,  — 
sadly  few  they  seem  to  one  who  cares  to  consider 
fame  as  a  reward  for  merit  —  found  expression  was 
instilled  most  largely  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
knew  the  writer  by  the  qualities  his  writing  exhib 
ited.  But  the  qualities  were  the  same  for  those 
who  did  not  know  him.  When  I  recall  the  his 
tory  of  his  country  from  the  issue  of  the  Emancipa 
tion  Proclamation  to  the  close  of  Mr.  Curtis's  life, 
with  the  long  line  of  vital  questions,  which  by  the 
growth  and  evolution  of  the  American  nation  were 
submitted  to  the  arbitrament  of  public  opinion,  and 
reflect  with  what  wisdom  and  fidelity,  what  cour 
age  and  unselfishness,  he  labored  for  what  he  be 
lieved  the  right,  and  what  experience  has  already 


EDITOR  OF  HARPER'S  WEEKLY.  177 

shown  was  in  the  main  the  right,  I  cannot  but 
feel  that  the  great  share  of  the  labor  that  was 
given  to  the  editor's  work  was  richly  rewarded, 
as  he  would  have  rated  reward. 

In  1864  came  the  presidential  election.  There 
was  early  shown  a  very  pronounced  and  apparently 
strong  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  renomination. 
It  was  manifested  most  distinctly  by  what  was 
known  as  the  "radical"  element  of  the  Republican 
party,  whose  leaders  felt  that  the  President  had 
advanced  much  too  slowly  toward  the  destruction 
of  slavery.  With  these  men  Mr.  Curtis  had  sym 
pathy  so  far  as  their  hatred  of  slavery  was  involved, 
and  their  feeling  that  it  was  the  source  of  the  re 
bellion.  With  their  distrust  or  disapproval  of  the 
President  he  had  no  sympathy.  He  felt  that  Lin 
coln  was  perfectly  sound  in  purpose,  that  his  judg 
ment  was  on  the  whole  safe,  that  he  was  entitled 
to  decide  since  his  responsibility  was  so  great,  and 
that  he  was  in  a  position  to  know  best  what,  for 
the  whole  country,  was  best.  Still  more  keenly 
he  felt  that  whatever  were  the  President's  possible 
errors,  the  risk  of  any  change  was  appalling.  And 
he  had,  moreover,  a  very  just  perception  of  the 
actual  condition  and  tendency  of  public  opinion, 
and  it  agreed  with  the  President's  estimate  of  it. 
He  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton  (April  7,  1864)  :  — 

"  MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  How  grandly  the  coun 
try  is  speaking  for  the  war  and  the  policy  I  Night 
before  last  I  dined  with  Colonel  Raasloff1  and 
1  The  Danish  Minister. 


178  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

Count  Piper  and  Habricht,  and  I  claimed  that  thus 
far  we  had  proved  that  in  a  republic  patriotism 
was  not  necessarily  subordinated  to  party  spirit. 
It  seems  just  now  as  if  our  true  victory  were  to  be 
greater  than  even  we  had  supposed. 

"  I  have  seen  Lincoln  tete-a-tete  since  I  saw  you, 
and  my  personal  impression  of  him  confirmed  my 
previous  feeling.  I  am  sorry  that  Fremont  seems 
to  be  placed  in  a  position  which  can  please  no  real 
friend  of  his.  Only  to-day  I  have  an  invitation 
from  the  office  of  '  The  New  Nation '  to  meet 
some  friends  of  all  the  radical  candidates  to  '  take 
steps  to  form  a  radical  national  committee,  and  to 
secure  a  radical  platform,  and  a  reliable  radical 
man  for  the  presidential  campaign  about  to  open.' 
Last  week  I  went  to  Baltimore,  and  supped  at  the 
Union  Club  with  a  dozen  of  the  most  strenuous 
men  there.  Every  one,  when  the  war  began,  was  a 
pro-slavery  man ;  now  they  will  have  nothing  but 
immediate,  uncompensated  emancipation.  Charles, 
you  and  I  are  superannuated  fogies." 

Mr.  Curtis  was  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the  Re 
publican  National  Convention  of  1864  held  in  Bal 
timore.  He  was  an  ardent  and  effective  supporter 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  nomination.  A  glimpse  of  his 
work  there  is  afforded  in  a  letter  (June  16,  '64),  to 
Mr.  Norton :  — 

"  MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  I  hope  you  like  our  Bal 
timore  work.  The  unanimity  and  enthusiasm  were 
most  imposing.  I  voted  against  the  admission  of 
Tennessee,  because  I  did  not  want  the  convention 


EDITOR   OF  HARPERS  WEEKLY.  179 

to  meddle  with  the  question ;  and,  since  she  only 
wanted  to  come  in  to  help  do  what  we  were  sure  to 
do  without  her,  I  thought  that,  as  the  cause  was  ex 
actly  the  same  for  both  of  us,  she  should  give  us 
forbearance  while  we  gave  her  sympathy.  But  it 
was  impossible  to  resist  the  torrent,  and  they  all 
came  in.  There  is  no  harm  done.  I  cannot  but 

rf 

think  Sumner  wrong.  If  all  New  York  rebels,  I 
am  still  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  That  is  the 
simple,  obvious,  necessary  ground. 

"  The  committee  of  one  from  each  State  appointed 
me  to  write  the  official  letter  to  the  President,  and 
refused  to  instruct  me.  I  sent  it  yesterday,  having 
read  it  to  Mr.  Bryant  and  to  Raymond.  They 
were  both  entirely  pleased  with  everything  in  it." 

In  the  canvass  that  followed  on  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  that  of  General  George  B.  Mc- 
Clellan  by  the  Democrats,  Mr.  Curtis  worked  with 
the  utmost  vigor,  spirit,  and  patience.  His  part  in 
the  Baltimore  Convention  had  won  for  him  a  posi 
tion  of  influence  in  the  party,  which  for  him  car 
ried  with  it  a  full  corresponding  responsibility.  In 
the  columns  of  "  Harper's  Weekly,"  in  his  constant 
and  wide  correspondence  and  in  his  speeches,  he 
did  all  that  he  could  to  guide  and  arouse  public 
opinion.  His  labors  were  incessant,  and  often  amid 
harassing  events  which,  though  they  could  not  fail 
to  give  him  the  utmost  anxiety,  he  met  with  cheer 
ful  courage  and  often  with  humor.  He  wrote  to 
Mr.  Norton,  July  12,  1864,  when  General  Grant's 
movement  toward  Petersburg  had  left  the  capital 


180  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

and  the  Pennsylvania  border  exposed  to  possible 
raids  by  Confederate  cavalry :  — 

"  And  how  is  Ashfield  ?  I  should  have  written 
you  there  before  if  I  had  supposed  there  was  a 
post-office  at  such  a  height.  Do  you  have  to  eat 
oil  more  than  three  times  a  day  to  keep  warm  in 
this  weather?  We  don't.  But  then  we  live  upon 
an  island  in  the  temperate  zone.  Or  are  you  warmed 
by  the  news  of  the  isolation  of  Washington  ?  There 
is  something  comical  about  it  which  I  cannot  escape, 
with  all  the  annoyance.  The  great  Dutch  Penn 
sylvania  annually  sprawling  on  its  back,  and  bel 
lowing  to  mankind  to  come  and  help  it  out  of  the 
scrape,  is  perfectly  ludicrous.  I  hope  that  this  year 
all  the  States  will  learn  that,  while  they  have  no 
efficient  and  organized  militia,  they  will  be  con 
stantly  harassed  by  raids  to  the  end  of  the  war. 
We  have  all  kinds  of  rumors  here  at  every  moment, 
from  which  you  are  free.  But  the  sense  of  absurd 
ity  and  humiliation  is  very  universal.  These  things 
weaken  the  hold  of  the  administration  upon  the 
people ;  and  the  only  serious  peril  that  I  foresee  is 
the  setting  in  of  a  reaction  which  may  culminate 
in  November  and  defeat  Lincoln,  as  it  did  Wads- 
worth  in  this  State.  I  wish  we  had  a  loyal  governor, 
and  that  New  York  city  was  virtuous." 

In  the  stress  of  the  deadly  struggle  for  the  life 
of  the  nation  Mr.  Curtis's  mind  turned  frequently 
to  the  study  of  the  hardly  less  difficult  struggles 
that  attended  the  foundation  of  the  government. 

"  Have  you  thought,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton, 


EDITOR   OF  HARPERS   WEEKLY.  181 

"  what  a  vindication  this  war  is  of  Alexander  Ham 
ilton?  I  wish  somebody  would  write  his  life  as  it 
ought  to  be  written,  for  surely  he  was  one  of  the 
greatest  of  our  great  men,  as  Jefferson  was  the 
least  of  the  truly  great ;  or  am  I  wrong  ?  Hamil 
ton  was  generous  and  sincere.  Was  Jefferson 
either  ?  In  Franklin's  life  how  the  value  of  tem 
perament  shows  itself !  It  was  as  fortunate  for 
him  and  for  us  as  his  genius." 

Another  letter  to  the  same  friend  (August  28th) 
reports  his  first  degree  of  LL.  D.,  —  a  title,  by  the 
way,  which  he  never  used,  or  allowed,  if  he  could 
help  it,  to  be  attached  to  his  name,  even  after  he 
had  received  the  right  to  it  from  Harvard,  —  and" 
also  shows  the  tone  of  public  opinion  at  that 
date :  — 

NORTH  SHORE,  28th  August,  '64. 

Frank  wrote  me,  or  printed  rather,  in  large  and 
remarkable  capitals,  a  letter  the  other  day.  I  en 
livened  the  tranquil  circle  here  by  calling  it  a  Cap 
ital  letter,  —  a  little  work  of  mine  which  I  dedicate 
to  Jane.  Probably  you  are  not  aware  that  I  am 
myself  the  latest  little  work  of  Madison  University. 
Blushes  forbid  me  to  write  that  that  discriminating 
institution  has  done  for  the  least  of  your  friends 
what  Harvard  did  for  that  other  celebrated  scholar, 
Andrew  Jackson.  Yesterday  I  received  a  letter 
with  a  very  large  green  seal,  addressed  "  G.  W.  C., 
LL.  D. !  "  Oh  my  prophetic  soul !  I  have  long 
called  Frank  and  Zib  Doctor. 

I  say  not  a  word  about  the  war,  but  did  people 


182  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

ever  deserve  success  at  the  polls  less  than  the  Union 
party?  Two  years  ago  I  was  the  only  Lincoln 
man  I  knew  hereabouts,  and  I  have  come  round  to 
the  same  position.  Yet  he  will  be  elected,  or  we 
are  dreary  humbugs. 

Good-by,  dear  boy.  I  am  more  cheerful  than 
ever,  for  within  two  months  we  shall  see  the  whole 
force  of  treason  North  and  South,  and  if  we  sink 
't  is  to  see  what  we  shall  see  !  I  shall  not  be  able 
to  write  on  Peace  —  luckily  for  you.  It  will  be  a 
good  text  for  J.  R.  L.  Give  him  my  love,  if  he  is 
with  you,  and  to  all  the  dear  ones. 
'  Your  friend  the  doctor  sends  his  benediction. 

A  week  later  is  an  allusion  to  General  Burnside, 
for  whom  he  had  the  utmost  affection  and  re 
spect  :  — 

EAST  GREENWICH,  Monday,  5th  September,  1864. 

MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  Burnside  is  staying  with 
me  here  at  the  house  of  my  cousin,  Mr.  Goddard. 
Yesterday  we  sat  upon  the  rocks,  and  he  told  me 
the  whole  story  of  the  mine  and  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  It  is  intensely  interesting  and  perfectly 
clear.  He  is  the  noblest,  most  magnanimous  man 
I  ever  saw,  and  I  shall  tell  you  the  tale  with  im 
mense  satisfaction  some  day.  On  Saturday  morn 
ing,  when  the  news  of  Sherman's  success  came,  he 
was  the  most  unaffectedly  delighted  man  I  ever  saw. 
His  exultation  wound  up  by  his  seizing  his  wife 
and  kissing  her. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   END   OF   THE   WAR. 

IN  October  Mr.  Curtis  was  nominated  for  Con 
gress  in  his  home  district.  Two  years  before,  his 
friends  had  pressed  his  nomination,  but,  curiously 
enough,  it  had  been  defeated  by  a  prejudice  against 
him  as  enjoying  too  much  of  the  confidence  of  the 
administration  in  the  matter  of  appointments,  and 
by  the  independence  and  impartiality  of  his  recom 
mendations.  The  enthusiasm  this  time  "  was  such," 
he  wrote,  "  that  I  quite  lost  my  voice  when  I  came 
to  thank  the  convention.  I  shall  not  be  elected," 
he  added,  "  but  the  manner  of  the  nomination  was 
better  than  the  matter  of  the  election."  Though 
convinced  of  the  hopelessness  of  the  canvass,  Mr. 
Curtis  saw  in  it  an  opportunity  for  the  advance 
ment  of  the  general  cause,  and  he  entered  upon  it 
with  the  greatest  energy.  For  the  next  six  weeks 
he  spoke  almost  daily,  and  sometimes  twice  a  day, 
and  always,  as  described  by  a  friend,  "more  for 
Lincoln  than  for  himself." 

The  crowded  days  of  those  eventful  months  wore 
siowly  on.  While  Grant  was  painfully  fighting 
and  forcing  his  way  to  cut  off  Lee's  army  from 
the  South,  and  Sheridan  laid  waste  the  valley  of 


184  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

the  Shenandoah  from  which  Lee's  supplies  had 
so  largely  cojne,  Sherman,  after  the  long  series  of 
bloody  and  difficult  battles  that  ended  with  the 
capture  of  Atlanta,  had  begun  the  great  "  March  to 
the  Sea,"  and  Mobile  had  fallen  before  the  fleet  of 
Farragut.  The  "reaction"  was  first  checked,  then 
dissipated  by  victory,  and  on  the  morrow  of  the 
election  Mr.  Curtis  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton :  — 

HARPER'S  WEEKLY,  NEW  YORK, 
9th  November,  1864. 

MY  BEAU  CHARLES,  —  Let  us  thank  God  and 
the  people  for  this  crowning  mercy.  I  did  not 
know  how  my  mind  and  heart  were  strained  until 
I  felt  myself  sinking  in  the  great  waters  of  this 
triumph.  We  knew  it  ought  to  be ;  we  knew  that, 
bad  as  we  have  been,  we  did  not  deserve  to  be 
put  out  like  a  mean  candle  in  its  own  refuse  ;  but 
it  is  never  day  until  the  dawn.  I  do  not  yet  know 
whether  Seymour  is  elected.  I  hope  not,  for  while 
he  is  in  power  this  grand  State  is  a  base  for  rebel 
operations;  and  he  is  put  in  power,  if  at  all,  by 
those  who  would  make  any  honorable  government 
impossible.  My  heart  sank  as  I  stood  among 
drunkards  and  the  worst  men,  yesterday  morning, 
to  vote;  but  it  sank  deeper  when  I  saw  Aaron  L., 
and  others  like  him,  voting  to  give  those  drunkards 
the  power  of  the  government.  I  have  prepared 
a  very  small  sermon  upon  Political  Infidelity,  for 
what  infidels  such  men  are  to  themselves  and  to 
mankind ! 

I  am  defeated,  of  course,  and  by  a  very  heavy 


THE   END    OF   THE    WAR.  185 

majority.  In  my  own  county  my  vote  would  have 
been  largest  of  all  the  Union  candidates  if  my 
name  could  have  been  sent  to  the  soldiers,  as  the 
governor's  was.  As  it  is,  he  is  some  twenty  before 
me.  But  Fernando  Wood  and  James  Brooks  are 
defeated  —  God  be  praised !  I  have  never  been 
deceived  about  myself,  but  I  am  forever  glad  that 
my  name  was  associated  with  this  most  memorable 
day.  Yours  most  affectionately, 

G.  W.  C. 

During  the  winter  that  followed,  feeling  that 
the  triumph  of  the  national  cause  was  now  only 
a  question  of  time,  and  of  brief  time,  Mr.  Curtis 
devoted  the  opportunities  of  the  lyceum  platform, 
which  no  one  commanded  more  completely  than 
he,  to  the  education  of  the  public  mind  in  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  lesson  of  the  war.  The  lecture 
on  "Political  Infidelity,"  alluded  to  in  the  last 
letter,  was  delivered  some  fifty  times  in  the  season 
of  1864  and  1865.  One  has  but  to  remember  the 
interest  the  addresses  of  a  man  like  Mr.  Curtis 
aroused  in  every  town,  large  or  small,  where  he  was 
heard,  the  intense  feeling  of  the  people  throughout 
the  North  as  to  all  questions  related  to  the  war, 
the  eager  discussion  that  followed  a  lecture  of  this 
sort  in  each  community,  to  understand  the  scope 
and  the  depth  of  the  influence  he  exerted.  The 
lecture  was  in  effect  a  fervent  plea  for  perfect 
freedom  of  discussion.  Slavery  had  brought  the 
.country  to  civil  war,  because  slavery  was  the  sole 


186  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

question  in  our  political  history  as  to  which  discus 
sion  had  been  entirely  suppressed  in  one  part  of 
the  land,  and  avoided,  discouraged,  and  by  every 
device  —  political,  social,  commercial  —  repressed  in 
the  other.  In  the  darkness  that  was  thus  brought 
about,  the  South,  on  the  one  hand,  had  formed  a 
mistaken  notion  both  of  its  strength  and  of  the 
position  assigned  to  its  policy  by  the  intelligent 
opinion  of  the  world,  while  on  the  other  hand  the 
North  mistook  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  South 
and  its  own  rights  and  duties.  The  following 
passage  will  indicate  Mr.  Curtis's  treatment  of 
the  first  mentioned  phase  of  his  subject.  Having 
quoted  Mr.  Seward's  description  of  the  domination 
of  the  slave  power,  he  referred  to  Alexander  H. 
Stephens's  retirement  from  public  life  in  1859  and 
his  farewell  speech:  "Listen  to  Mr.  Stephens  in 
the  summer  sunshine  six  years  ago :  4  As  matters 
now  stand,  so  far  as  the  sectional  questions  are 
concerned,  I  see  no  cause  of  danger  either  to  the 
Union  or  to  Southern  security  in  it.  The  former 
has  been  to  me,  and  ought  to  be  to  you,  subordi 
nate  to  the  latter.  There  is  not  now  a  spot  of  the 
public  territory  of  the  United  States  over  which 
the  national  flag  floats  where  slavery  is  excluded 
by  the  law  of  Congress,  and  the  highest  tribunal  of 
the  land  has  decided  that  Congress  has  no  power 
to  make  such  a  law.  At  this  time  there  is  not  a 
ripple  upon  the  surface.  The  country  was  never 
in  a  profounder  quiet.'  Do  you  comprehend  the 
terrible  significance  of  those  words?  He  stops; 


THE   END    OF   THE    WAR.  187 

he  sits  down.  The  summer  sun  sets  over  the  fields 
of  Georgia.  Good-night,  Mr.  Stephens — a  long 
good-night.  Look  out  from  your  window  —  how 
calm  it  is  !  Upon  Missionary  Ridge,  upon  Look 
out  Mountain,  upon  the  heights  of  Dalton,  upon 
the  spires  of  Atlanta,  silence  and  solitude ;  the 
peace  of  the  Southern  Policy  of  Slavery  and  Death. 
But  look!  Hark!  Through  the  great  five  years 
before  you  a  light  is  shining  —  a  sound  is  ringing, 
It  is  the  gleam  of  Sherman's  bayonets,  it  is  the 
roar  of  Grant's  guns,  it  is  the  red  daybreak  and 
wild  morning  music  of  peace  indeed,  the  peace  of 
National  Life  and  Liberty."  The  application  of 
the  lesson  was  plain :  "  Reconstruct,  then,  as  you 
will.  But  we  are  mad  if  the  blood  of  the  war  has 
not  anointed  our  eyes  to  see  that  all  reconstruc 
tion  is  vain  that  leaves  any  question  too  brittle  to 
handle.  Whatever  in  this  country,  in  its  normal 
condition  of  peace,  is  too  delicate  to  discuss  is  too 
dangerous  to  tolerate.  Any  system,  any  policy, 
any  institution  which  may  not  be  debated  will 
overthrow  us,  if  we  do  not  overthrow  it." 

With  the  opening  days  of  April  came  the  end  of 
Lee's  obstinate  resistance.  On  the  3d  the  news  of 
the  occupation  of  Richmond  by  the  advance  guard 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  reached  New  York. 
Mr.  Curtis  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton :  — 

HOME,  4th  April,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  I  thought  of  you  all  the 
day  yesterday  as  the  news  of  the  crowning  mercy 
came  rolling  in.  The  merchants  and  brokers  in 


188  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

Wall  Street  came  out  of  their  dens  and  sang  Old 
Hundred  and  John  Brown.  From  the  high  win 
dows  at  the  Harpers'  where  I  sat  the  sky  was  bril 
liant  and  festal  with  innumerable  flags.  Fletcher 
Harper  came  to  me,  and  said,  "  How  glad  I  am  we 
did  not  beat  at  Bull  Run,  for  then  Slavery  would 
not  have  been  abolished,  and  we  should  have  been 
worse  off  than  before."  My  dear  boy,  who  is  equal 
to  these  things?  We  hear  that  the  Major  Mills 
who  has  fallen  is  your  young  cousin.  Ah  me ! 
what  heart-breaks  salute  our  triumphs.  You  will 
be  very  sober  in  your  joy. 

Almost  on  the  morrow  the  whole  nation  was 
made  "  sober  in  its  joy,"  by  the  loss  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln.  Mr.  Curtis  resisted,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
all  solicitations  to  address  the  public,  save  through 
his  paper,  on  this  signal  event.  In  the  Weekly 
his  expressions  were  marked  by  deep  feeling,  but 
wholly  devoid  of  any  tinge  of  that  impulse  toward 
vengeance  that  was  at  the  time  so  general.  "  To 
night,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  in  the  misty  spring 
moonlight,  as  I  think  of  the  man  we  all  loved  and 
honored,  laid  quietly  to  rest  upon  the  prairie,  I 
feel  that  I  cannot  honor  too  much,  or  praise  too 
highly,  the  people  that  he  so  truly  represented,  and 
which,  like  him,  has  been  faithful  to  the  end.  So 
spotless  he  was,  so  patient,  so  tender,  —  it  is  a 
selfish,  sad  delight  to  me  now,  as  when  I  looked 
upon  his  coffin,  that  his  patience  had  made  me 
patient,  and  that  I  never  doubted  bis  heart,  or 


THE  END    OF   THE    WAR.  189 

head,  or  hand.  At  the  only  interview  I  ever  had 
with  him,  he  shook  my  hand  paternally  at  parting, 
and  said,  4  Don't  be  troubled.  I  guess  we  shall 
get  through.'  We  have  got  through,  at  least  the 
fighting,  and  still  I  cannot  believe  it.  Here  upon 
the  mantel  are  the  portraits  of  the  three  boys 
who  went  out  of  this  room,  my  brother,  Theo 
dore  Winthrop,  and  Robbie  Shaw.  They  are  all 
dead  —  the  brave  darlings  —  and  now  I  put  the 
head  of  the  dear  Chief  among  them,  I  feel  that 
every  drop  of  my  blood  and  thought  of  my  mind 
and  affection  of  my  heart  is  consecrated  to  secur 
ing  the  work  made  holy  and  forever  imperative 
by  so  untold  a  sacrifice.  May  God  keep  us  all  as 
true  as  they  were  !  " 

Ah  well !  to  how  many  of  us  came  this  impulse 
of  consecration  in  that  solemn  hour.  High,  in 
deed,  is  the  fortune  of  any  of  us  who  have  re 
mained  as  steadfast  to  it  as  did  Mr.  Curtis. 

In  the  spring  of  1865  Mr.  Curtis  received, 
through  Mr.  Norton,  a  proposition  to  take  control 
of  a  new  paper,  the  purpose  of  which  is  sufficiently 
indicated  in  the  following  letter,  which  I  give  as 
disclosing  Mr.  Curtis's  judgment  in  matters  of  this 
sort,  and,  also,  quite  explicitly,  the  peculiar  situa 
tion  he  himself  held  in  journalism  :  — 

NORTH  SHORE,  April  26,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  Yours  of  the  24th  reaches 
me  this  evening.  I  cannot  at  once  decide  upon 


190  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

the  proposition  which  you  make,  —  for  I  should 
wish  to  ask  several  questions. 

I  doubt  if  $50,000  is  capital  enough  to  start 
such  a  paper  as  you  contemplate,  and  I  am  far 
from  sure  that  it  is  really  needed.  It  seems  to  me 
always  best  to  use  existing  machinery  if  possible, 
and  I  fear  that  the  influence  which  would  control 
the  new  paper  would  constantly  tend  to  make  it 
outrun  the  popular  sympathy  upon  whose  support 
it  must  rely,  so  far  as  to  defeat  its  purpose,  by 
limiting  its  circulation  to  those  who  need  no  con 
version.  Do  not  the  "  Atlantic,"  the  "  North 
American,"  the  "Evening  Post,"  and  "Harper's 
Weekly  "  —  to  go  no  further  —  address  the  vari 
ous  parts  of  the  audience  that  are  counted  upon 
for  a  new  paper,  and  are  there  not  great  advan 
tages  in  having  the  questions  presented  in  these 
different  forms  ?  The  change  in  public  sentiment 
upon  the  true  democratic  idea  is  so  wide  and  deep, 
that  an  organ  for  special  reform  in  the  matter 
does  not  seem  to  be  required.  It  —  the  reform 
—  has  now  become  the  actual  point  of  the  political 
movement  of  the  country  ;  and  the  same  reasoning 
which  justifies  the  abandonment  of  the  abolition 
societies  and  organs  pleads  against  your  project. 

If  I  lay  more  stress  upon  the  special  object 
of  the  paper  than  its  projectors  intend,  then  it 
becomes  merely  a  liberal  Weekly  of  the  most  ad 
vanced  kind,  and  I  can  see  no  particular  reason 
for  its  success. 

As  for  myself,  I  am  perfectly  free  to  say  what 


THE   END    OF   THE    WAR.  191 

I  think  upon  all  public  questions  in  "  Harper's 
Weekly  "  without  the  least  trouble  or  responsibil 
ity  for  the  details  of  the  paper,  and  with  no  ne 
cessity  of  even  being  at  the  office.  The  audience 
is  immense.  The  regular  circulation  is  about  one 
hundred  thousand,  and  on  remarkable  occasions, 
as  now,  more  than  two  hundred  thousand.  This 
circulation  is  among  that  class  which  needs  exactly 
the  enlightenment  you  propose,  and  access  is  se 
cured  to  it  by  the  character  of  the  paper  as  an 
illustrated  sheet.  I  should  want  some  very  per 
suasive  inducement  to  relinquish  the  hold  I  al 
ready  have  upon  this  audience,  for  I  could  not 
hope  to  regain  it  in  a  paper  of  a  different  kind. 
Of  course,  "  Harper's  Weekly  "  is  not  altogether 
such  a  paper  as  I  should  prefer  for  my  own  taste  ; 
but  it  does  seem  to  me  as  if  I  could  do  with  it  the 
very  work  you  propose,  and  upon  a  much  greater 
scale  than  in  the  form  you  suggest ;  nor  is  the 
pecuniary  advantage  of  your  offer  such  as  to  shake 
this  conviction. 

Now  from  what  I  say  you  will  see  how  I  feel. 
The  offer  you  make  is  so  handsome  and  honorable 
that  I  do  not  decline  it,  unless  you  must  have  an 
immediate  answer.  If  the  affair  can  still  remain 
open,  will  you  tell  me  if  the  capital  is  secured  — 
if  the  paper  is  to  be  started  anyhow,  —  if  there 
is  any  person  selected  for  the  business  editor  — 
whether  it  is  to  be  a  joint-stock  association  —  and 
what  the  size,  etc.,  of  the  paper  is  intended  to  be. 

If  you  have  the  time  to  inform  me  upon  these 


192  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

and  such  points,  I  will  not  delay  long  in  giving 
you  a  final  answer. 

Always  your  affectionate, 

G.  W.  CURTIS. 

Nothing  came  of  the  project. 
The  following  note  to  Mr.  James  Russell  Low 
ell  relates  to  the  "  Commemoration  Ode  :  "  — 

ASHFIELD,  MASS.,  12th  September,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  LOWELL,  —  I  thank  you  with  all  my 
heart  for  the  noble  ode  which  with  all  my  heart  I 
have  read  and  enjoyed.  Certainly  you  have  done 
nothing  in  a  loftier  strain,  nor  has  anything  more 
truly  worthy  of  the  great  theme  been  written.  If 
it  be  very  "serious  and  very  sad  it  is  for  the  same 
reason  that  the  sky  is  blue  and  the  corn  yellow. 
I  have  read  it  aloud  to  Anna,  and  read  it  and 
re-read  it  to  myself  ;  and  I  am  sure  it  says  what 
the  truest  American  heart  feels  and  believes.  And 
if  that  is  not  a  work  worth  doing,  —  if  a  man  can 
do  it,  what  is  ? 

The  note  is  signed  "  Affectionately  yours,  and 
more  and  more." 

Mr.  Curtis  continued  to  take  an  active  part, 
as  well  as  a  strong  interest,  in  politics,  and  in  the 
elections  of  1866,  he  was  chosen  as  a  delegate-at- 
large  to  the  Convention  for  revising  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  State  of  New  York.  The  Legislature 
of  1867  elected  a  Senator  of  the  United  States 
from  New  York,  and  Mr.  Curtis's  name  was  pre« 


THE   END    OF   THE    WAR.  193 

sented  in  many  of  the  papers  of  the  Republican 
party.  How  fitted  he  was  to  secure  preferment  by 
ordinary  political  methods  is  shown  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Norton,  who  had  written  him  on  the  subject. 

"  The  only  chance,"  he  writes,  "  is  a  bitter  dead 
lock  between  the  three,  or  two,  chiefs.  At  present 
(it  is  a  profound  secret)  the  friends  of  Harris,  or 
his  chief  managers,  expect  42  votes  in  a  caucus  of 
109,  to  begin  with.  The  friends  of  Conkling  count 
upon  50  ;  those  of  Davis  upon  20.  The  friends  of 
the  latter  proposed  to  me  to  make  a  combination 
against  Conkling,  the  terms  being  the  election  of 
whichever  was  stronger  now,  —  Davis  or  me,  — r 
and  the  pledges  of  the  successful  man  to  support 
the  other  two  years  hence.  I  declined  absolutely." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

FOUR    YEARS    OF   POLITICS. 

As  the  time  approached  for  him  to  take  up  the 
new  duties  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Norton  May  6,  1867 :  — 

"  You  cannot  imagine  how  I  grieve  over  my  lost 
summer — lost  before  the  frosts  are  gone.  But 
when  I  was  urged  to  let  my  name  be  used,  I  thought 
it  all  over  carefully,  and  concluded  that  I  ought  not 
to  decline.  It  will  be  a  very  long  and  very  arduous 
work,  but  I  shall  be  deeply  interested  in  much  of 
it,  and  in  all  the  novelty  of  a  deliberative  assem 
bly.  I  have  been  reading  the  debates  of  the  con 
vention  of  '46.  They  are  endless  and  mortally 
dull.  All  this  in  dog-days  too." 

Nor  did  actual  experience  cure  him  of  his  origi 
nal  distaste.  He  wrote  in  July :  — 

"  Ah,  if  I  could  run  out  of  this  business  I  think 
I  should  feel  as  if  I  had  had  enough  of  it.  I  do 
not  perceive  an  attraction  toward  public  life  strong 
enough  to  make  the  tremendous  domestic  sacrifice 
which  is  necessary,  and  I  think  that  I  shall  stay 
at  home  next  winter  that  I  may  become  acquainted 
with  my  family." 

Yet   Mr.  Curtis  worked  faithfully  and   intelli- 


FOUR  YEARS  OF  POLITICS.        195 

gently  in  the  convention,  and  held  a  prominent 
place  in  a  body  which  included  many  eminent  men, 
—  among  them  Mr.  William  M.  Evarts,  afterwards 
Secretary  of  State  and  Senator,  and  at  the  time 
the  most  brilliant  and  scholarly  lawyer  of  the 
State  ;  Mr.  Charles  J.  Folger,  afterwards  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  and  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury;  Mr.  William  A.  Wheeler,  subse 
quently  Yice-President ;  Mr.  Greeley  and  Mr.  S.  J. 
Tilden.  He  was  made  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Education  and  Funds  relating  thereto,  and 
member  of  several  other  committees.  His  own 
committee  recommended  the  abolition  of  the  Board 
of  Regents,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  which 
was  at  the  time  almost  a  perfunctory  body,  and  the 
creation  of  the  Board  of  Education,  with  a  single 
executive  officer.  This  plan  was  not  adopted.  He 
advocated  the  appointment  of  the  attorney-general 
and  of  other  state  officers,  then  and  still  elected, 
and  he  maintained  that  in  this  way  the  authority 
of  the  people  was  more  rationally  and  effectu 
ally  maintained  than  by  the  numerous  elections  in 
which  the  voters  exercised  no  real  choice.  He  op 
posed  the  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  liquor  and  took 
a  very  earnest  part  in  the  debate  on  the  government 
of  municipalities,  supporting  the  authority  of  the 
State  over  the  general  police  system  and  condemn 
ing  the  theory  of  local  control.  In  general  his 
ideas  were  those  that  might  have  been  expected 
from  a  convinced  Democrat  with  an  intellectual 
sympathy  with  Hamilton  rather  than  with  Jef 
ferson. 


196  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

On  one  subject,  however,  lie  was  very  radically 
democratic.  He  was  the  most  conspicuous  and  by 
far  the  most  competent  of  the  advocates  of  the  suf 
frage  for  women,  and  on  his  own  proposition  for 
an  amendment  in  that  sense,  he  made  a  speech 
more  elaborate  and  brilliant  than  any  other  of  his 
in  the  convention.  His  advocacy  was  wholly  un 
availing  in  affecting  the  action  of  the  convention, 
but  one  can  hardly  read  the  debates  without  feeling 
that  none  of  his  opponents  met  him  on  his  own 
ground  and  that  none  were  able  to  defend  their 
own  ground  against  his  logic,  which  was  never 
more  penetrating  and  alert.  In  fact  not  since  his 
first  assault  on  slavery  and  its  consequences  in 
American  politics  had  Mr.  Curtis  entered  a  fight 
with  more  complete  conviction,  with  greater  ardor, 
with  more  careful  equipment  or  a  bearing,  always 
within  the  limit  of  courtesy,  more  defiant. 

The  basis  of  his  argument  was  the  American 
principle  of  equality  of  rights,  the  principle  which 
he  had  so  ardently  adopted  in  the  anti-slavery  con 
flict,  and  his  challenge  was  to  those  who  with  ref 
erence  to  the  rights  of  men  held  that  principle  as 
openly  and  firmly  as  he  held  it,  to  show  with  what 
justice  women  could  be  excluded  from  its  advan- 
tages.  The  vote  he  believed  to  be  the  natural  and 
necessary  weapon  by  which  the  possessors  of  equal 
rights  could  defend  them,  and  the  inevitable  con 
dition  not  only  to  their  defense,  but  to  their  intelli 
gent  and  wholesome  and  safe  exercise.  But  while 
lie  maintained  this  fundamental  principle  as  the 


FOUR    YEARS   OF  POLITICS.  197 

ground  on  which  the  representatives  of  all  the 
people  of  the  State  must  stand  in  framing  the  Con 
stitution,  he  did  not  shrink  from  the  argument  of 
expediency.  And  in  meeting  this  argument  he 
sustained  a  running  debate  with  his  opponents,  the 
record  of  which  enlivens  the  reports  of  the  conven 
tion,  otherwise  u  endless  and  mortally  dull  "  as  he 
found  those  of  1846  to  be.  It  was  not  difficult  for 
hini  to  match  every  objection  of  mere  expediency 
presented  by  the  other  side  with  instances  of  classes 
of  males  to  whom  the  objection  was  equally  telling 
if  not  more  so. 

The  argument  that  when  the  great  body  of  wo 
men  want  to  vote,  as  they  have  gradually  come  to 
want  the  right  to  their  own  inherited  or  acquired 
property,  to  an  equal  authority  over  their  children, 
and  similar  rights,  they  would  get  that  right  as  they 
had  got  these,  inspired  Mr.  Curtis  with  indignation 
and  scorn,  and  he  hotly  resented  delay  on  such  a 
pretext  as  a  stupid  wrong  to  the  women  who  al 
ready  desired  that  right.  But  that  argument,  or  the 
disposition  for  which  it  gave  a  convenient  excuse, 
prevailed  in  the  convention,  as  doubtless  he  ex 
pected  that  it  would.  He  had,  however,  the  conso 
lation  of  believing  that  his  course  in  the  convention 
may  have  served  to  hasten  the  day  when  this  to 
him,  absurdly  unfair,  illogical  condition  precedent 
should  be  complied  with.  Certainly  that  consider 
able  body  of  educated  and  intelligent  women  who 
feel,  and  who  are  acknowledged  to  be,  entirely 
fitted  for  a  share  in  the  political  action  of  the  com- 


198  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

munity  of  which  they  are  honored  and  useful  mem 
bers  must  have  recognized  that  no  more  gallant  or 
accomplished  champion  ever  bore  their  colors. 

The  Constitutional  Convention  came  to  an  end 
early  in  1868,  and  Mr.  Curtis  returned  to  his  ordi 
nary  pursuits  with  a  sense  of  profound  relief  as 
to  the  past  and  with  a  new  vigor,  but  not  without 
anxiety  as  to  the  immediate  future.  The  Kepub- 
lican  party  was  going  through  its  troubles  with 
President  Johnson,  whose  impeachment  trial  closed 
in  that  year.  Mr.  Curtis  fully  appreciated  the 
dangers  and  evils  of  the  stubborn  Tennesseean's 
course,  and  warmly  supported  the  authority  of 
Congress  to  determine  the  policy  of  the  government 
in  the  difficult  matter  of  reconstruction,  but  he  was 
indignant  at  the  wanton  abuse  visited  on  the  Sena 
tors  who  voted  "  not  guilty,"  and  firmly  upheld  their 
fidelity  to  their  oath  as  they  understood  it.  "Of 
course,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Mr.  Pinkerton,  "  if 
a  man  thinks  that  an  oath  to  decide  in  a  specific 
case  according  to  the  evidence  is  an  oath  to  be 
bound  by  party  dictation,  very  well.  I  differ,  but 
I  do  not  quarrel.  So  if  a  man  thinks  a  Senator 
bought,  let  him  say  so,  provided  he  can  bring  his 
proof.  But  to  say  that  a  Senator  who  thinks  his 
oath  means  what  it  states  and  who  acts  accordingly 
is  infamous,  is  not  criticism ;  it  is  an  effort  to  de 
stroy  liberty  of  thought  and  speech  by  terrorism." 
"I  think,"  he  added,  "as  it  happens,  although  I 
should  have  voted  to  convict,  that  the  party  is  in 
finitely  stronger  and  surer  of  success  since  the  fail- 


FOUR  YEARS  OF  POLITICS.        199 

ure  of  impeachment.  I  feared  a  few  weeks  ago 
that  we  were  to  be  saved  by  the  folly  of  our  foes. 
But  I  see  now  that  we  have  the  conscience  as  well 
as  the  ardor  of  youth." 

The  general  action  of  the  strong  Republican  ma 
jority  in  the  Senate  during  Johnson's  term,  even 
the  impeachment  plan,  had  met  with  Mr.  Curtis's 
approval ;  but  he  watched  with  the  keenest  solici 
tude  one  phase  of  the  contest,  that  relating  to  ap 
pointments.  The  power  of  the  Senate  to  give  or 
to  refuse  its  "  advice  and  consent "  to  nominations 
was  now  used  as  a  weapon  against  the  President, 
and  in  the  heat  and  stress  of  the  struggle,  it  was 
inevitable  that  serious  abuses  of  that  power  should 
be  overlooked,  or  excused,  or  even  justified.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  the  abuses  were  numerous  and 
flagrant,  and  it  was  during  Johnson's  term  that  the 
mischievous  rule  known  as  the  courtesy  of  the 
Senate  took  a  definite  form,  and  by  a  series  of  pre 
cedents  gained  an  authority  that  it  did  not  before 
have.  This  rule  in  substance  was  that  the  action 
of  the  Senate  should  practically  be  decided  by  the 
Senators  (of  the  majority  party)  from  the  State  in 
which  the  office  to  be  filled  was,  or  from  which  the 
nominee  was  selected.  At  this  time  the  majority 
in  the  Senate  gradually  resolved  themselves  into  a 
compact  and  powerful  party  machine,  the  avowed 
purpose  of  which  was  to  protect  the  party  from 
disintegration  through  the  appointment  to  Federal 
offices  of  the  friends  or  tools  of  a  hostile  President. 
Since  patronage  was  the  chief  weapon  of  the  Presi- 


200  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

dent,  it  was  natural  that  his  opponents  in  the  Sen 
ate  should  seek  to  turn  it  aside,  and  so  far  as  prac 
ticable  to  wrest  it  from  his  hands.  This  they 
sought  to  do  by  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  con 
firmation.  And  since  the  majority  had  a  common 
party  object,  since  they  felt  themselves  to  be,  and 
actually  were,  a  sort  of  party  executive  committee, 
it  was  logical  for  them  to  apply  the  methods  of 
such  an  organization,  and  give  to  the  members 
from  each  State  the  disposition  of  matters  relating 
to  that  State,  and  to  hold  them  responsible.  The 
situation  was  novel.  Party  feeling  ran  very  high. 
The  sentiment  of  the  North  as  to  questions  grow 
ing  out  of  the  war  was  intense  and  general,  and 
it  was  on  the  side  of  the  Senators.  The  people 
believed  and  most  of  the  Senators  themselves  be 
lieved,  that  they  were  fighting  for  the  priceless 
fruits  of  the  victory  won  in  war  at  "  so  untold  a 
sacrifice."  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
party  then  in  power,  and  for  the  first  time  in  many 
years,  the  Senate  and  the  President  were  pursuing 
opposite  aims,  and  the  contest  necessarily  was  most 
bitter,  and  raged  most  hotly  about  the  offices,  as  to 
which  the  contestants  had  joint  rights.  The  tac 
tics  and  strategy  of  the  Senate  were  effective,  and 
the  "  courtesy  of  the  Senate "  helped  greatly  to 
make  them  so.  But  the  rule  did  not  lapse  with  the 
necessity  for  it.  The  power  of  the  Senators  of  each 
State  under  the  rule  was  exercised  at  first,  with  a 
certain  sense  of  responsibility,  because  the  attention 
of  the  whole  majority  in  the  Senate  and  of  the 


FOUR  YEARS  OF  POLITICS.*       201 

party  was  fixed  upon  them.  But  when  the  contest 
ended  with  the  retirement  of  Johnson  and  the 
accession  of  General  Grant,  the  Senators  did  not 
lay  aside  their  powers  nor  abandon  the  particular 
rule  by  which  these  had  been  distributed.  They 
retained  them,  and  the  public  attention  being  re 
laxed  they  used  them  with  less  and  less  responsi 
bility  and  therefore  selfishly  and  to  an  increasing 
degree  corruptly. 

This  was  an  extensive  and  acute  manifestation  of 
that  malady  of  the  body  politic  of  the  American 
democracy  which  has  since  received  the  significant 
and  repulsive  designation  of  the  "  spoils  system." 
Mr.  Curtis,  as  I  have  said,  regarded  it  with  the 
keenest  solicitude,  and  found  in  his  study  of  it  the 
first  strong  impulse  toward  that  long  struggle  for 
the  purification  of  politics  which  was  gradually  to 
become  the  absorbing  interest  and  occupation  of 
his  life.  Unlike  many  reformers  he  was  thoroughly 
acquainted  not  only  with  the  evil  he  contended 
against,  but  with  the  system  of  which  it  formed  a 
part,  and  with  the  good  as  well  as  the  bad  in  that 
system.  He  was  not  a  closet  politician.  He  had 
for  years  steadily  and  punctually  performed  the  de 
tailed  duties  of  a  party  man  in  his  own  home  ;  had 
attended  all  primary  meetings,  done  duty  on  party 
committees  and  in  conventions,  and  had  taken  his 
share  of  trouble  and  responsibility  in  the  distribu 
tion  of  offices.  Of  the  party  "  workers  "  who  in 
sisted  that  a  party  organization  could  not  be  kept 
up,  or  the  labor  of  party  contests  be  secured,  were 


202  .GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

not  the  offices  used  as  rewards  and  incentives,  there 
were  very  few  who  had  given  to  their  party  the 
time  and  effort  given  by  him,  and  certainly  there 
was  not  one  of  them  who  had  given  more  with  no 
reward  whatever,  and  no  desire  for  any,  beyond  the 
sense  of  duty  done.  Nor  was  he  in  the  least  blind 
to  the  need  of  parties  or  to  their  value,  nor  igno 
rant  that  they  were  not  composed  of  saints  and  could 
not  be.  He  was  not  even  without  strong  party 
spirit,  that  is  to  say,  that  intent  sympathy  with  those 
who  are  working  to  a  common  end,  pride  in  achieve 
ment,  and  the  "delight  of  battle."  If  there  was 
ever  a  "  loyal "  Republican,  as  the  phrase  goes,  he 
was  one.  He  was  as  far  from  being  a  mere  theo 
rist  or  fanatic  in  politics  as  he  was  from  being 
a  self-seeker.  He  was  in  fact  a  party  leader  of 
shrewdness  and  tact  and  knowledge  of  men,  their 
prejudices  and  weaknesses  as  well  as  their  virtues. 
He  saw  in  the  system  that  based  party  power  on 
patronage  not  only  its  vileness  and  its  corrupting 
tendency,  but  its  stupidity.  His  faith  in  human 
nature  and  his  observation  and  experience  proved 
to  him  that  this  system  was  an  unsound  basis  that 
must  crumble  from  the  rottenness  of  its  material. 

In  1868  Mr.  Curtis  was  an  elector  on  the  Repub 
lican  ticket,  and  cast  his  vote  for  General  Grant,  in 
whom  he  had  much  confidence.  During  the  next 
spring  and  summer  he  delivered  lectures  at  Cornell 
University,  in  which  he  felt  a  keen  interest.  Of 
one  of  these  lectures  he  writes :  — 

"  I  have  written  a  lecture  upon  American  Litera* 


FOUR  YEARS  OF  POLITICS.        203 

ture  to  the  effect  that  what  we  have  belongs  to 
the  great  English  stock,  as  Ovid  was  a  Roman, 
though  upon  the  Euxine,  and  Theocritus  a  Greek, 
though  a  Sicilian.  The  undertone  is  friendliness 
for  England." 

In  1869,  on  the  death  of  Henry  J.  Eaymond,  the 
founder  of  the  New  York  "  Times,"  Mr.  Curtis  re 
ceived  a  proposition  to  take  Mr.  Raymond's  place. 
He  felt  that  the  offer  was  "  flattering,"  —  which  it 
was  not  exactly,  since  Mr.  Curtis's  reputation  was 
on  a  level,  at  least,  as  high  as  that  of  the  paper,  — 
and  he  felt  also  that  it  was  an  opportunity  for  a 
more  direct  if  not  more  extended  influence  on  pub 
lic  opinion.  But  he  declined,  and  wisely.  The  con 
ditions  of  his  work  on  "  Harper's  Weekly"  were, 
as  I  have  said,  peculiarly  happy.  It  would  have 
been  difficult,  if  not  impracticable,  to  establish  the 
same  in  a  paper  like  the  "  Times." 

About  this  time,  certain  articles  by  Mr.  Samuel 
Bowles,  in  the  Springfield  "  Republican,"  having  ex 
cited  the  sharp  disapproval  of  the  party  press,  Mr. 
Curtis  wrote,  in  the  Weekly :  "  The  more  deeply 
an  independent  journal  sympathizes  with  the  prin 
ciples  and  purposes  of  a  party,  the  more  strenuously 
will  it  censure  its  follies  and  errors,  the  more 
bravely  will  it  criticise  its  candidates  and  leaders 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  principle  pure  and 
of  making  the  success  of  the  party  a  real  blessing." 
This  was  a  doctrine  which  he  had  already  had  to 
apply,  and  which  he  maintained  to  the  end. 

In  September,  1869,  Mr.  Curtis  was  nominated 


204  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

for  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State  by  the  Con 
vention  of  the  Republican  party.  He  declined  the 
nomination.  It  does  not  come  within  the  plan  of 
this  Life  to  follow  in  detail  the  political  course  of 
Mr.  Curtis,  but  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Norton 
seems  to  me  to  be  of  peculiar  interest,  and  I  give 
it  nearly  entire  :  — 

"  I  have  been  nominated  by  acclamation  for 
Secretary  of  State  of  New  York,  by  the  Republi 
can  Convention,  to  which  I  did  not  know  that  my 
name  was  to  be  presented.  I  opened  the  paper, 
and  I  confess  the  tears  were  very  near  my  eyes  at 
such  a  spontaneous  summons  from  one  of  the  best 
conventions  we  have  had,  and  whose  platform  was 
without  evasion,  and  noble.  But  upon  every  account 
it  was  impossible  for  me  to  think  of  accepting.  I 
could  not  add  the  official  duties  to  my  present 
without  breaking  down,  and  I  could  not  reduce  my 
present  duties  without  injustice  to  my  family  and  to 
myself ;  and  really  I  have  no  doubt  I  am  of  more 
service  as  I  am  than  I  should  be  in  that  office. 
So  we  hurried  down  to  South  Deerfield  and  I  tele 
graphed  the  inclosed  note  to  the  "  Tribune  "  and  the 
"  Times,"  and  "  Sun,"  in  which  for  candidly  read 
cordially,  —  a  mistake  of  the  telegraph.  I  was 
for  many  reasons  very  sorry  to  decline.  There  is  a 
doubt  of  our  success  and  I  knew  that  I  should  be 
said  to  fear  a  defeat.  Then  I  knew  that  for  any 
candidate,  and  especially  the  head  of  the  ticket  to  de 
cline,  would  cloud  the  prospects  of  the  party.  And 
I  found  that  some  of  the  others  —  say  Hillhouse, 


FOUR^YEARS   OF  POLITICS.  205 

the  best  of  the  ticket  —  had  accepted  upon  condi 
tion  of  my  running.  My  position  was  very  difficult, 
but  my  duty  was  perfectly  clear.  It  happened  as 
I  apprehended.  The  reception  of  my  name,  even 
as  far  as  Illinois,  was  really  enthusiastic ;  I  was 
amazed;  I  think  no  man  ever  had  so  much  favor 
for  so  small  desert.  .  .  .  The  consequences  of  my 
declining  were  in  proportion.  I  have  had  most 
powerful  private  and  public  remonstrances.  The 
Washington  "  Star  "  said  that  it  is  the  most  remark 
able  case  of  inconsistency ;  that  I  have  always  in 
sisted  that  every  man  should  do  his  share,  etc.  The 
Albany  "  Evening  Journal "  insisted  that  there  were 
imperative  public  reasons  that  demanded  my  recon 
sidering  my  decision.  The  Boston  " Advertiser" 
said  that  I  had  not  hitherto  shown  myself  afraid  of 
leading  a  forlorn  hope.  The  Democratic  papers 
said  that  I  naturally  did  not  wish  to  be  slaughtered. 
Dorsheimer  of  Buffalo,  who  had  most  warmly  sup 
ported  me  in  the  Convention,  wrote  me  a  truly  pa 
thetic  appeal.  But  to  all  my  correspondents  I  re 
plied  that  I  had  not  changed,  that  I  had  done  and 
was  still  doing  my  share  of  political  duty,  that  while 
a  man  ought  to  make  many  sacrifices,  in  the  pres 
ent  condition  of  our  politics,  to  accept  so  authori 
tative  and  honorable  a  call,  yet  there  were  some 
that  he  had  no  right  to  make,  and  that  the  con 
fidence  in  his  judgment  which  led  his  friends  to 
nominate  him  ought  to  justify  to  them  his  decision  ; 
that  it  is  a  mistake  for  an  editor  to  take  executive 
office ;  but  as  for  the  forlorn  hope,  if  I  had  only 


206  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

been  sure  of  being  beaten  I  would  gladly  have  ac 
cepted,  In  the  midst  Hillhouse  declined  as  I  had 
feared,  and  then  General  Robinson,  the  next  in  im 
portance.  The  Democrats  laughed  at  the  rats  run 
ning  from  the  sinking  ship,  and  at  length  the  new 
nominations  were  made.  General  Sigel  was  put  in 
my  place  and  Horace  Greeley  (!)  in  that  of  Hill- 
house.  Horace  wrote  a  long  letter  in  accepting, 
and  rapped  me  on  the  knuckles,  in  saying  that 
he  hoped  that  it  would  be  said  of  him  that  he 
never  asked  his  party  for  an  office  and  never  de 
clined  any  honorable  service  to  which  it  called  him. 
I  should  rather  have  it  said  of  me  that  I  never  de 
clined  any  such  service  that  I  could  honorably  per 
form.  Of  course  the  party,  as  a  party,  must  be 
vexed  with  me  in  increasing  the  perils  of  the  can 
vass  —  and  unfortunately  no  future  convention  will 
like  to  nominate  the  best  of  men  without  consulting 
them  previously.  But  still,  much  as  I  regret  the 
event,  it  was  inevitable,  and  my  conduct  was  right. 
It  spoils,  probably,  my  political  career  in  the  ordi 
nary  sense.  It  seems  to  me  not  impossible  from 
the  reception  of  my  nomination  that  whether  suc 
cessful  or  not,  I  might  have  been  nominated  for 
governor  next  year.  But  at  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  I  don't  want  to  be.  I  could  n't  enter  upon 
public  official  life,  and  devote  myself  to  a  political 
career  of  that  kind,  with  so  much  pleasure  to  myself 
or  profit  to  the  country  or  to  the  cause,  as  in  other 
ways.  So  what  seems  the  loss  of  a  great  oppor 
tunity  to  many  of  my  friends,  and  to  all  politicians, 
is  not  a  loss  to  me  but  a  gain." 


FOUR  YEARS  OF  POLITICS.       207 

Mr.  Curtis  was  to  have  his  experience  with  con 
ventions  as  to  the  governorship  the  next  year, 
which  he  also  describes  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Norton. 
The  reaction  which  he  expected  followed  the  deci 
sive  Republican  successes  of  1868,  and  the  party 
was  defeated  in  New  York  in  1869.  Meanwhile 
there  had  grown  up  in  the  State  and  particularly 
in  the  city  of  New  York  two  powerful  machines  ; 
one,  the  Republican,  with  the  Federal  offices  as  its 
base  of  operations,  and  a  hitherto  unbroken  hold 
of  the  Legislature ;  the  other,  the  Democratic, 
of  which  Tammany  was  in  control,  with  its  base 
in  the  city  offices.  There  was  a  certain  ill-con 
cealed  connection  between  the  two,  growing  out  of 
these  common  methods.  It  was  not  avowed,  nor 
did  it  extend  to  all  the  Republican  leaders,  but 
there  was  already  in  existence  the  class  of  politi 
cians  known  as  "  Tammany-Republicans,"  and  they 
largely  controlled  the  organization  of  the  party  in 
the  city. 

Mr.  Curtis  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton  from  Ashfield, 
September  17,  1870,  a  very  full  account  of  the  con 
vention  of  that  year.  He  had  declined  to  go  to 
the  convention  as  a  delegate,  having  special  family 
cares  at  that  time  which  engrossed  his  attention. 
While  at  Ashfield,  he  was  urged  by  the  "  adminis 
tration  "  leaders  to  attend  and  act  as  chairman. 
Feeling  that  possibly  the  result  in  the  presidential 
election  of  1872  might  depend  on  the  course  of  the 
convention,  and  knowing  that  the  party  was  torn 
by  the  factional  disputes  of  Senators  Fenton  and 


208  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Conkling,  and  that  he  was  personally  wholly  inde 
pendent  of  both,  in  the  hope  that  he  might  help  to 
unite  and  concentrate  the  party,  he  reluctantly 
accepted.  He  was  chosen  chairman  by  a  very 
heavy  majority,  and  his  speech  was  received  with 
great  enthusiasm.  Thereupon  one  of  the  Conkling 
managers  came  to  him  and  asked  him  to  accept 
the  nomination  for  governor.  He  replied  that  he 
would  not  decline  it,  if  the  convention  offered  it, 
though  he  did  not  wish  it,  and  he  insisted  that  his 
name  should  be  fairly  and  honorably  presented,  if 
at  all.  His  name  was  presented,  but  by  a  local 
politician  of  New  York  city,  a  Tammany  Kepublican 
of  very  disagreeable  associations.  The  Conkling 
vote  was  not  given  him  and  General  Woodford 
was  nominated,  Mr.  Greeley  being  the  third  can 
didate.  Apparently,  the  manager  referred  to  had 
simply  used  Mr.  Curtis  to  defeat  Mr.  Greeley. 
That  gentleman  believed  that  this  purpose  was 
known  to  Mr.  Curtis  and  was  indignant  accordingly. 
Mr.  Curtis  was  bitterly  hurt,  for  he  had  consented 
to  the  use  of  his  name  in  good  faith,  not,  certainly, 
without  legitimate  ambition,  but  with  the  sincere 
belief  that  his  nomination  would  be  the  strongest 
that  could  be  made,  and,  therefore,  the  best  for  the 
party  and  the  cause  to  which  he  was  devoted.  It 
was  the  first  and  last  time  that  he  trusted  his  name 
to  politicians  for  use  in  a  convention.  I  doubt  if 
he  ever  quite  understood  the  exact  trick  that  had 
had  been  played  upon  him.  It  was  not  easy  for 
him  to  believe  others  capable  of  what  was  morally 


FOUR     YEARS    OF    POLITICS.  209 

impossible  for  him.  But  the  trick  was  not  so  hurt 
ful  to  him  as  it  was  unworthy  in  its  authors.  It 
left  him  more  firmly  established  in  his  editorial 
chair  and  free  for  the  work  of  reform  that  was  just 
opening  before  him.  Had  he  been  nominated  and 
elected  governor  of  New  York,  he  would  have 
given  up  his  editor's  chair  —  both  the  "  Easy," 
and  the  other  —  and  the  current  of  his  life 
would  have  been  turned,  not,  I  think,  more  fortu 
nately. 

I  turn  back  a  little  in  my  narrative  to  pick  up  a 
few  letters  to  James  Russell  Lowell.  Here  is  one 
apropos  of  an  invitation  to  a  dinner  in  his  honor 
conveyed  by  Lowell  and  Mr.  Emerson  and  Dr. 
Holmes  as  a  "  committee  "  and  in  a  severely  formal 
manner :  — 

NORTH  SHORE,  STATEN  ISLAND,  15th  April,  1869. 
MY  DEAR  LOWELL,  —  As  I  had  received  and  an 
swered  Emerson's  letter  I  treated  yours  as  a  strictly 
private  one,  viewing  you  in  the  light  of  a  friend 
and  not  of  a  committee-man.  In  that  view  I  confide 
to  you  that  the  possibility  of  a  speech,  or  remarks, 
or  a  few  observations,  or  a  brief  and  pertinent 
rejoinder,  or  a  felicitous  off-hand,  etc.  etc.,  fills 
me  with  dismay,  and  already  affects  my  appetite. 
But  you  are  too  civilized  for  all  that,  I  know. 
What  if  I  bring  two  or  three  old  lectures  to  pre 
pare  for  any  contingency? 

Yours  always  in  speechless  sympathy, 

G.  W.  C. 


210  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

The  following  refers  to  a  few  days  spent  with 
Lowell  at  Cornell  University :  — 

NORTH  SHOKE,  STATEN  ISLAND,  N.  Y., 
10th  June,  1869. 

MY  DEAR  JAMIE,  —  Your  note  and  book  and  that 
masterly  account  current  with  its  balance,  came 
safely  yesterday ;  and  I  have  the  photos  of  Ithaca 
which  I  knew  you  would  leave  behind,  and  which 
I  will  send  to  you  by  E.  or  by  somebody  going 
your  way. 

After  you  left  came  also  Mr.  Spencer  with  a 
dozen  of  those  grim  cards  for  you  to  autograph, 
and  with  a  view  in  the  Enfield  ravine  for  you. 
I  have  been  homesick  for  you  ever  since  we  parted, 
for  you  were  Ithaca  to  me  ;  and  I  am  amused  by 
hearing  people  say,  "  O  my  !  I  had  no  idea  it  was 
such  a  pleasant  place."  Already  I  look  back  upon 
it  with  the  feeling  that  I  have  for  the  dearest  old 
Italian  days.  I  was  an  unhappy  wanderer  after 
you  left,  that  Friday  morning ;  and  when  the  cook 
came  to  the  surface  to  say  "  God  bless  you,"  and 
the  little  Mary  stood  half  crying,  and  the  Reverend 
Phoenix  presented  arms,  as  it  were,  at  the  door, 
and  they  all  said,  "  How  good  you  and  Mr.  Lowell 
are,"  —  I  was  so  glad  to  have  my  name  mingled 
affectionately  with  yours,  that  I  waved  my  lily 
hand  to  them  like  a  conqueror. 

Good-by,  my  dearest  Jamie,  and  with  the  sin< 
cerest  regards  to  your  wife,  I  am 

Affectionately  yours, 

G.  W.  C. 


FOUR  YEARS  OF  POLITICS.        211 

And  here  is  one  acknowledging  a  Christmas  gift 
of  "  The  Cathedral  "  from  its  author.  The  "  big 
house  "  referred  to  was  the  residence  of  the  Shaws 
next  to  his  own  home  on  Staten  Island :  — 

NORTH  SHORE,  STATEN  ISLAND, 
29th  December,  1869. 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  It  is  a  fortunate  man  who 
can  give  to  his  friends  as  a  Christmas  box  a 
Cathedral  of  his  own  building,  —  I  had  already 
begun  to  know  it.  On  the  last  night  at  the  "  big 
house  "  we  all  passed  through  it,  I  leading,  and  it 
left  us  all  in  the  best  and  noblest  of  Christmas 
tempers,  as  it  will  for  many  and  for  many,  when 
you  and  I  hear  Christmas  bells  no  more.  I  had 
just  read  Tennyson's  "  Holy  Grail,"  and  I  said  "  it 
is  afternoon  with  him."  But  with  you,  my  dear 
James,  it  is  a  richer  morning  hour  than  ever. 

They  have  left  the  big  house.  They  have 
laughingly  cut  the  throat  of  one  of  the  most  beauti 
ful  homes,  consecrated  and  endeared  by  all  that 
makes  home  precious,  where  the  girls  were  all 
married  and  their  first  children  all  born,  from 
which  Rob  l  and  Charlie 2  went  to  be  killed  —  in 
which  we  have  all  been  so  happy  and  so  sad,  —  and 

1  Robert  Gould  Shaw,  brother  of  Mrs.  Curtis,  Colonel  of  the 
Fifty-fourth   Massachusetts    (colored)    Regiment,    killed   at   the 
assault  on  Fort  Wagner,  S.  C.,  on  July  18,  1863. 

2  Charles  Russell  Lowell,  Colonel  of  the  Second  Massachusetts 
Cavalry  Regiment,  brother-in-law  of  Mrs.  Curtis,  and  nephew  of 
Mr.  Lowell,  wounded  October  19,  1864,  at  the  battle  of  Cedar 
Creek,  died  October  20. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM 

all  this  to  have  a  little  smaller  house  and  to  look 
upon  the  water !  Of  course  it  is  wholly  a  matter  of 
temperament,  of  sentiment.  But  that  is  only  to 
say  that  it  concerns  what  most  enriches  life.  I  look 
over  and  pity  the  great,  silent,  gloomy,  deserted 
house.  Why  should  it  be  treated  so  ? 

We  are  all  well  and  send  you  our  truest  love, 
and  I  am  always 

Your  most  affectionate, 

G.  W.  C. 

In  a  note  to  Mr.  Norton,  he  refers  to  the  winter 
of  1869  and  1870,  the  first  one  devoted  to  the  ad 
vocacy  of  civil  service  reform  in  the  Lyceum :  — 

NORTH  SHORE,  May  3,  '70. 

My  winter  was  very  busy  indeed,  but  very  pleas 
ant.  James  Sturgis  is  in  Mt.  Vernon  Street  in 
Boston  and  I  began  with  a  month  with  him.  I  had 
only  Saturday  evening  and  Sunday  for  friendship. 
I  dined  at  the  Club,  at  Sebastian  Schlesinger's 
(with  Music),  at  Judge  Gray's  ;  and  Tom  Apple- 
ton  gave  me  one  of  the  most  perfect  conceivable 
dinners,  Agassiz,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  and  Richard 
Dana,  Jr.,  the  guests.  How  I  wanted  you !  I 
heard  some  of  the  good  concerts,  every  day  wagged 
the  pen  and  every  night  the  tongue,  going  as  far  as 
Portland.  My  lecture  was  the  Civil  Service  paper 
that  I  wrote  for  the  Social  Science  meeting,  and  al 
though  a  grave  and  earnest  plea,  was,  I  think,  very 
acceptable,  although  as  half  of  the  Lyceum  audi 
ence  are  women  there  could  not  be  the  universal 


FOUR     YEARS    OF    POLITICS.  213 

interest  which  is,  after  all,  essential  to  a  lecture. 
I  delivered  it  in  Baltimore  —  a  city  that  I  detest 
ever  since  the  slaughter  of  1861,  and  to  an  immense 
audience  in  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Music. 

And  here  is  a  glimpse  of  his  reception  at  Vassar 
College,  whither  he  went  with  some  misgivings  :  — 

"  Since  my  lectures  ended,  I  have  written  an 
address  for  the  young  women  of  Vassar  College, 
where  I  went  on  Friday  last,  and  to  one  of  the 
most  unique  occasions  of  my  whole  life.  The  build 
ing  is  like  the  Tuileries.  There  are  about  four 
hundred  students  ;  and  an  aspect  of  healthfulness, 
intelligence  and  refinement,  with  the  elegance  and 
comfort  of  the  college  appointments  and  accommo 
dations,  leaves  the  most  delightful  and  cheerful  im 
pression.  As  you  know,  the  spirit  of  the  College 
is  far  from  that  of  the  4  Woman's  Rights '  move 
ment,  at  least  among  the  trustees  and  many  of  the 
professors,  but  I  pleaded  for  perfect  equality  of 
opportunity  and  liberty  of  choice,  and  I  was  never 
so  cordially  thanked,  even  by  those,  like  the  Presi 
dent,  who  I  thought  might  regret  my  coming. 

Maria  Mitchell,  the  astronomer,  was  most  ardent 
in  her  expressions.  Several  noble  looking  girls, 
who  would  not  tell  their  names,  came  up  to  me 
at  the  reception  afterwards,  and  asked  to  take  my 
hand.  I  felt  more  than  ever  how  deeply  the  best 
women  are  becoming  interested.  Next  week  I  am 
to  speak  at  the  Anniversary  of  the  Woman's  Suf 
frage  Association,  and  that,  I  believe,  is  my  last 
public  appearance  for  the  present." 


21-4  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

The  following:  notes  from  letters  to  Mr.  Norton 

O 

give  some  of  Mr.  Curtis's  personal  impressions  of 
the  current  phases  of  politics  :  — 

June  26,  1870. 

I  think  the  warmest  friends  of  Grant  feel  that 
he  has  failed  terribly  as  president  —  not  from 
want  of  honesty  or  desire,  but  from  want  of  tact  ami 
great  ignorance.  It  is  a  political  position,  and  he 
knew  nothing  of  politics  —  and  rather  despised  them. 
Then  the  crisis  was  most  compound.  The  special 
ends  of  the  party  were  achieved.  The  reaction  was 
inevitable  and  should  have  been  expected  and  en 
countered.  But  we  have  drifted  into  it  without 
care.  Upon  no  single  subject  have  we  been  agreed. 
We  have  had  no  policy,  have  raised  no  issues. 
Grant  has  been  headstrong  about  San  Domingo,  and 
the  Cuban  matter  has  been  unskillfully  managed, 
although  the  position  was  correct.  In  losing  Hoar 
we  lose  by  far  the  ablest  man  in  the  administration. 
Nobody  that  I  see  knows  why  he  went.  The  Senate 
would  not  make  him  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
as  if  such  men  were  to  be  had  for  the  asking,  and 
his  place  in  the  Cabinet  is  taken  by  an  unknown 
ex-rebel  from  Georgia.  Is  it  "  vindictive  "  not  to 
ask  Mr.  Toombs  to  be  Secretary  of  War  ?  Why 
is  it  that  the  good  men  haven't  the  courage  of 
their  convictions.  Perfunctory  statesmanship  is 
my  abhorrence. 

July  20, 1870. 

At  the  last  moment  Congress  refused  to  allow 
the  American  registry  of  foreign  ships  for  carrying 


FOUR     TEARS    OF    POLITICS.  215 

during  the  (Franco-German)  war  as  the  President 
requested.  This  is  to  me  very  significant,  for  it 
shows  that  there  is  something  stronger  than  party 
cohesion,  even  under  such  circumstances  as  the  war 
and  the  pressing  request  of  the  party  president. 
Protection  must  now  be  considered  a  vital  issue 
and  immediate,  not  merely  possible  and  postpou 
able. 

There  is  a  curious  presentiment  here  of  a  force 
that  was  ultimately  to  divide  the  Kepublican  party, 
and  to  produce  a  rearrangement  of  politics,  in 
which,  though  not  upon  that  issue,  Mr.  Curtis  was 
to  find  himself  acting  with  the  Democrats. 

NEW  YORK,  March  4,  '71. 

It  is  the  very  ebb  tide  upon  our  side,  but  Grant 
will  be  renominated,  if  he  makes  no  signal  blunder 
this  year,  and  it  is  best  that  he  should  be.  He  in 
tended  for  some  time  (as  I  knew)  to  send  me  to 
England,  but  relinquished  it  because  he  did  not 
personally  know  me  —  and  I  had  been  hostile  to 
San  Domingo.  I  was  greatly  relieved,  for  I  should 
have  been  sorely  perplexed.  Oh !  for  an  hour  of 
hot  sherry  sangaree  and  you !  !  How  our  tongues 
would  rattle ! 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   KEFORM   COMMISSION. 

THE  day  that  the  last-cited  letter  was  written, 
Mr.  Curtis  received  from  President  Grant  a  nomi 
nation  as  to  which  he  was  in  no  wise  "  perplexed," 
and  from  the  acceptance  of  which  he  had  no  desire 
to  be  "relieved."  It  was  the  nomination  to  the 
commission  which,  under  a  clause  of  the  Sundry 
Civil  Appropriation  Act  of  March  3,  1871,  the 
President  was  authorized  to  appoint,  to  inquire 
what  rules  and  regulations  for  admission  to  the 
public  service,  which  the  President  could  enforce 
under  existing  laws,  would  best  promote  its  effi 
ciency.  The  commission,  of  which  Mr.  Curtis  was 
at  once  made  chairman,  consisted  of  seven  mem 
bers,  of  whom  the  others  were  Messrs.  Alexander 
G.  Cattell,  Joseph  Medill,  Dawson  A.  Walker,  E. 
B.  Elliott,  Joseph  H.  Blackfan,  and  David  C.  Cox. 
Mr.  Medill  and  Mr.  Curtis  were  the  only  members 
without  experience  in  the  service,  the  others  being 
actually  or  formerly  connected  with  the  various  ex 
ecutive  departments.  They  were  entirely  agreed 
as  to  the  evils  to  be  remedied,  and  substantially  so 
as  to  the  remedy  to  be  adopted ;  but  the  heaviest 
labor  of  the  commission  fell  upon  Mr.  Curtis,  who, 


THE  REFORM   COMMISSION.  217 

however,  received  valuable  assistance  from  the  other 
members. 

The  first  report  of  the  commission  was  submit 
ted  to  the  President  December  18,  1871,  after  ten 
months  of  most  careful  and  systematic  investiga 
tion  and  study.  The  commissioners  were  greatly 
indebted  to  the  committee  of  which  Hon.  Thomas 
A.  Jenckes,  of  Rhode  Island,  had  been  chairman, 
and  which  had  made  two  very  extended  and  well- 
elaborated  reports,  the  first  January  31,  1867,  and 
the  second  May  14,  1868.  Mr.  Jenckes's  com 
mittee  had  embodied  in  these  reports  not  only  the 
opinions  and  testimony  of  a  large  number  of  offi 
cials  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  but  de 
tailed  descriptions  and  discussion  of  the  systems 
of  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Prussia,  France,  and 
China.  One  of  the  reports  of  the  English  com 
mission  was  included  complete,  with  an  historical 
sketch,  instructions  to  candidates,  and  specimen  ex 
amination  papers.  Edouard  Laboulaye's  exhaust 
ive  essay  on  "  Education  and  the  Administrative 
System  of  Probation  in  Germany  "  was  translated 
for  Mr.  Jenckes's  first  report,  and  our  accom 
plished  consul  at  Paris,  Mr.  John  Bigelow,  sup 
plied  an  account  of  the  French  service.  In  the 
two  reports,  therefore,  covering  some  three  hun 
dred  closely  printed  pages,  the  new  commission 
had  ready  at  their  hands  a  rich  supply  of  material 
for  the  comparative  study  of  our  own  methods  in 
the  civil  service  and  those  of  other  countries,  vary 
ing  in  their  resemblance  or  contrast  to  our  own. 


218  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Mr.  Jenckes  had,  moreover,  made  a  considerable 
study  of  both  the  views  and  the  practice  of  the 
early  Presidents  and  their  chief  executive  officers, 
which  was  of  great  use  as  showing  how  widely 
these  had  been  departed  from. 

But  the  aim  of  Mr.  Jenckes  had  been  legislation, 
and  legislation  of  a  very  radical  character.  Two 
features  of  the  bill  offered  with  his  report  were, 
first,  that  the  candidate  standing  highest  in  a  com 
petitive  examination  and  probation  must  be  selected, 
and,  second,  that  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners 
provided  for  in  the  bill  should  make  rules  for 
suspension  and  dismissal  from  the  service  after 
trial  by  themselves  on  charges.  No  such  sweeping 
legislation  could  be  obtained,  even  had  it  been  de 
sirable,  and  the  Curtis  commission  was  limited  to 
such  a  system  as  could  be  enforced  by  the  Presi 
dent  under  existing  laws.  But  while  the  work  of 
the  commission  was  thus  limited,  and  was  osten 
sibly  only  the  promotion  of  the  efficiency  of  the 
civil  administration,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  Mr.  Cur 
tis  would  not  have  been  called  to  undertake  it, 
and  would  not  have  undertaken  it,  had  the  need  of 
it  not  been  much  more  urgent  and  its  object  much 
wider  than  was  indicated  by  the  terms  of  the  ap 
propriation  bill  under  which  the  commission  acted. 
The  real  purpose  which  enlisted  him  was  the  re 
striction  and  ultimate  abolition  of  the  "spoils  sys 
tem,"  that  is  to  say,  the  system  by  which  offices 
were  given  as  the  rewards  or  incentives  for  service 
rendered  to  a  party  or  to  its  leaders  or  managers. 


THE  REFORM   COMMISSION.  219 

"In  obedience  to  this  system,"  he  declared  in 
his  report,  "the  whole  machinery  of  the  govern 
ment  is  pulled  to  pieces  every  four  years.  Political 
caucuses,  primary  meetings,  and  conventions  are 
controlled  by  the  promise  and  expectation  of  pat 
ronage.  Political  candidates  for  the  lowest  or 
highest  positions  are  directly  or  indirectly  pledged. 
The  pledge  is  the  price  of  the  nomination,  and, 
when  the  election  is  determined,  the  pledges  must 
be  redeemed.  The  business  of  the  nation,  the 
legislation  of  Congress,  the  duties  of  the  depart 
ments,  are  all  subordinated  to  the  distribution  of 
what  is  well  called  the  '  spoils.'  No  one  escapes. 
President,  secretaries,  senators,  representatives, 
are  pertinaciously  dogged  and  besought  on  the  one 
hand  to  appoint  and  on  the  other  to  retain  subordi 
nates.  The  great  officers  of  the  government  are 
constrained  to  become  mere  office-brokers.  Mean 
time  they  may  have  their  own  hopes,  ambitions, 
and  designs.  They  may  strive  to  make  their  pat 
ronage  secure  their  private  aims.  The  spectacle  is 
as  familiar  as  it  is  painful  and  humiliating.  We 
accuse  no  individual.  We  appeal  only  to  universal 
and  deplorable  experience. 

"The  evil  results  of  the  practice  may  be  seen, 
first,  in  its  perversion  of  the  nature  of  the  election 
itself.  In  a  free  country  an  election  is  intended  to 
be,  and  of  right  should  be,  the  choice  of  differing 
policies  of  administration  by  the  people  at  the 
polls.  It  is  properly  the  judgment  of  the  popular 
intelligence  upon  the  case  which  has  been  sub- 


220  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

mitted  to  it  during  the  canvass  by  the  ablest  and 
most  eloquent  advocates.  But  the  evil  system  un 
der  which  the  country  suffers  tends  to  change  the 
election  from  a  choice  of  policies  into  a  contest  for 
personal  advantage.  It  is  becoming  a  desperate 
conflict  to  obtain  all  the  offices,  with  all  their  law 
ful  salaries  and  all  their  unlawful  chances.  The 
consequences  are  unavoidable.  The  moral  tone  of 
the  country  is  debased,  the  national  character  de 
teriorates.  No  country  or  government  can  safely 
tolerate  such  a  surely  increasing  demoralization." 

Here,  then,  was  the  real  aim  of  Mr.  Curtis's 
work,  to  drive  politics  out  of  the  civil  service  and 
to  drive  patronage  out  of  politics.  It  was  a  fight 
for  a  new  emancipation  that  he  had  taken  up. 
As  has  been  said,  the  immediate  scope  of  the  com 
mission's  work  was  limited  to  what  could  be  done 
by  the  President  under  existing  laws.  The  first 
restriction  imposed  by  these  laws  was  defined  by 
the  opinion  of  the  then  attorney-general,  —  that, 
while  a  class  might  be  determined  from  whom  an 
appointee  should  be  selected,  appointment  could 
not  be  confined  to  the  single  person  standing  high 
est  in  a  competitive  examination.  This  was  in  ef 
fect  exactly  the  ground  taken  by  Mr.  Curtis  from 
the  start.  The  rules  were  framed  to  require  the 
appointment  from  the  three  persons  standing  high 
est  on  the  eligible  list.  The  second  point  of  im 
portance  presented  was  that  of  removals.  Hers 
the  difficulty  was^  not  so  much  what  the  law  al» 
lowed,  —  though  there  was  some  difference  of  opin- 


THE    REFORM    COMMISSION.  221 

ion  as  to  that, — but  the  best  mode  of  exercising 
the  power  of  removal.  Many  advocates  of  reform 
thought  that  tenure  for  good  conduct  should  be 
the  rule  and,  to  secure  this,  that  removals  should 
be  made  only  for  cause  ascertained  by  a  trial  and 
declared  by  an  independent  tribunal.  Mr.  Cur- 
tis's  report  recognized  the  evil  for  which  this  rem 
edy  was  proposed,  but,  it  declared,  "  such  fixity  of 
tenure  tends  to  great  perplexity  and  inconvenience 
in  administration,  and  the  responsible  head  of  a 
branch  of  the  public  service  may  justly  complain 
if  he  has  no  immediate  control  of  his  subordinates. 
The  details  of  official  conduct  which  most  perplex 
a  smooth  and  satisfactory  administration  are  al 
ways  obvious  to  the  competent  and  responsible 
chief,  but  are  not  always,  or  indeed  often,  of  a 
kind  to  be  proved  in  a  court.  A  discretion  of  re 
moval  in  such  cases,  if  so  guarded  in  its  exercise 
that  it  is  not  liable  to  be  abused,  is  most  desirable 
in  every  office."  The  cause  of  the  trouble  was 
political  pressure,  under  which  changes  were  con 
stantly  made  simply  to  give  a  new  band  of  political 
workers  their  "turn." 

"  Nothing  could  be  more  fatal  to  a  sound  service. 
Yet  it  is  not  unreasonable  that,  under  a  system 
founded  upon  party  patronage,  such  practices 
should  prevail.  After  Mr.  Marcy  had  said  that 
4  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils  of  the  enemy,'  he 
remarked,  '  but  I  never  said  that  the  victor  should 
plunder  his  own  camp.'  Yet  that  was  the  logic  of 
his  principle.  The  hardest  fighter  should  have  the 


222  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

most  spoils.  There  is  no  logic  in  equal  division 
between  him  who  merely  wishes  well  to  the  cause 
and  him  who  fights  the  battle.  If  influence  is  to 
appoint,  the  lesser  influence  must  yield  to  the 
greater ;  and  when  a  man  has  not  been  appointed 
by  reason  of  his  fitness,  he  must  not  ask  that  he  be 
retained  on  account  of  his  merit.  The  doctrine  of 
rotation  in  office  implies  that  merit  should  not  be 
considered.  It  treats  the  public  service  as  a  huge 
soup-house,  in  which  needy  citizens  are  to  take 
turns  at  the  tables,  and  they  must  not  grumble 
when  they  are  told  to  move  on.  Plainly,  if  this 
political  pressure  for  the  appointment  of  a  particu 
lar  person  could  be  baffled,  the  present  uncertainty 
of  tenure  would  be  corrected.  The  head  of  a  de 
partment  who  should  fill  the  various  offices  under 
him  not  with  the  favorites  of  certain  men,  but  with 
those  who  are  found  qualified,  would  then  have 
none  but  legitimate  reasons  for  the  removal  of  a 
faithful  and  efficient  officer.  Conspiracy  and  slan 
der  against  any  individual  would  then  have  no 
especial  inducement  or  opportunity,  and  capacity 
character,  and  efficiency  would  secure  the  same 
tenure  as  in  all  other  spheres  of  duty. 

"It  seems  to  us,  therefore,  more  desirable  to 
afford  this  reasonable  security  of  permanence  in 
office,  by  depriving  the  head  of  illegitimate  motives 
for  removal,  rather  than  by  providing  a  fixed  ten 
ure  to  be  disturbed  only  upon  conviction  after  for 
mal  accusation  and  trial.  There  is,  indeed,  no 
reason  for  such  a  tenure,  unless  it  can  be  shown 


THE    REFORM    COMMISSION.  223 

from  the  nature  of  the  system  that  the  power  of 
removal  is  likely  to  be  abused." 

These  two  points  being  determined,  the  rules  as 
proposed  to  the  President  provided  "  for  the  com 
petitive  examination  of  all  applicants,  for  the  ap 
pointment  of  those  found  to  be  best  qualified,  for 
entrance  at  the  lowest  grade  of  offices  in  which 
grading  is  practicable,  for  probation,  and  for  pro 
motion."  Great  importance  was  attached  by  Mr. 
Curtis  to  the  required  probation  of  six  months ; 
and,  as  the  most  general  objection  to  the  reform 
system  came  from  those  who  said  that  capacity 
could  not  be  found  out  by  questioning,  it  is  worth 
while  to  quote  the  report  on  this  point :  "  A  com 
petitive  examination  in  general  and  special  know 
ledge,  although  it  would  show  certain  attainments 
which  are  indispensable  to  the  proper  discharge 
of  certain  duties,  would  not  necessarily  prove  the 
faculty  of  skillfully  adapting  that  knowledge  to 
the  public  service.  It  is  a  common  remark,  that 
a  man  could  answer  all  the  book  questions,  as  they 
are  called,  and  yet  prove  to  be  an  inefficient  officer, 
while  one  who  knew  nothing  of  books  might  be 
very  serviceable.  This  may  sometimes  be  true; 
but  there  are  intelligent  persons  enough  who  have 
also  swift,  accurate,  and  thorough  business  aptitude. 
In  a  general  examination  this  can  be  little  more 
than  inferred ;  nothing  but  practice  tests  this  kind 
of  efficiency ;  and  we  therefore  provide  that,  when 
an  applicant  has  satisfied  all  other  examinations, 
his  skill  in  applying  his  knowledge  to  the  duties  of 


224  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

the  office  shall  be  proved  by  a  practice  of  six 
months,  and  that  he  shall  finally  be  appointed  only 
when  he  has  satisfied  this  test.  Probation,  indeed, 
is  nothing  but  the  test  of  those  essential  qualities 
of  an  officer  which  it  is  often  asserted  cannot  be 
ascertained  by  examination." 

The  rules  thus  framed  were  to  be  applied,  it 
may  be  said  in  a  general  way,  to  all  subordinates 
in  the  service  above  the  grade  of  laborers,  and 
below  those  appointed  with  the  advice  and  consent 
of  the  Senate,  excepting  postmasters  and  certain 
persons  holding  places  of  trust  for  whom  the  ap 
pointing  officer  was  especially  responsible.  "  In 
submitting  these  suggestions  with  the  rules  which 
we  have  framed,"  said  the  report,  "we  feel  that  it 
is  not  so  much  we  who  do  it  as  the  intelligent  pub 
lic  opinion  of  the  country.  There  has  long  been  a 
profound  conviction  that  the  system  of  appoint 
ments  to  the  civil  service,  upon  political  consider 
ation  only,  is  one  which  reason  and  experience 
equally  show  to  be  fatal  to  economy  of  administra 
tion  and  to  republican  institutions.  '  All  I  claim 
upon  the  subject  of  your  resources,'  said  Edmund 
Burke  a  century  ago,  pleading  for  reform  in 
England,  'is  this,  that  they  are  not  likely  to  be 
increased  by  wasting  them.'  But  our  system  of 
the  civil  service  courts  waste.  It  violates  the  fun 
damental  principles  of  thrift  and  economy ;  it  fos 
ters  personal  and  political  corruption ;  it  paralyzes 
legislative  honor  and  vigilance ;  it  weakens  and 
degrades  official  conduct ;  it  tempts  dangerous  am« 


THE    REFORM    COMMISSION.  225 

bition;  and,  by  poisoning  the  springs  of  moral 
action,  it  vitiates  the  character  of  the  people,  and 
endangers  the  national  prosperity  and  permanence. 

"We  would  not  exaggerate  the  importance  of 
the  peril,  but  the  constant  exposure  of  official  dis 
honesty,  the  vast  system  of  political  corruption  the 
disclosure  of  which  has  produced  a  peaceful  revo 
lution  in  the  city  of  New  York,  should  suggest  to 
every  good  citizen  the  possibility  of  a  similar  revo 
lution  which  might  not  be  peaceful.  If  by  that 
great  and  organized  corruption  it  had  been  possi 
ble  —  and  such  a  contingency  is  not  improbable  — 
to  decide  a  presidential  election,  and  in  a  manner 
universally  believed  to  be  fraudulent,  the  conse 
quences  would  probably  have  been  civil  war.  If 
such  corruption  be  not  stayed,  the  result  is  only 
postponed ;  and  nothing  so  surely  fosters  it  as  a 
system  which  makes  the  civil  service  a  party  prize, 
and  convulses  the  country  every  four  years  with  a 
desperate  strife  for  office." 

The  President  approved  the  rules  submitted  in 
December,  1871,  and  the  commission,  now  known 
as  the  "Advisory  Board,"  took  up  the  work  of 
preparing  the  detailed  regulations,  and  the  group 
ing  of  places  in  the  departments  at  Washington 
and  the  federal  offices  at  New  York.  This  work 
was  completed,  and  the  rules  and  regulations  were 
formally  promulgated  April  16,  1872.  There  was 
some  friction  at  first,  but  from  that  time  until 
March,  1875,  the  working  of  the  system  was  con 
stantly  more  satisfactory,  and  the  official  reports 


226  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

of  all  the  departments  successively  recognized  that 
fact.  For  a  long  time  under  the  old  system  the 
work  of  the  service  had  practically  and  necessarily 
been  done  by  a  relatively  small  proportion  of  the 
employees  who  had  escaped  the  mischievous  influ 
ence  of  political  pressure  because  their  experience, 
ability,  knowledge,  and  fidelity  were  absolutely 
indispensable.  No  responsible  appointing  officer 
dared  to  include  them  in  a  "clean  sweep,"  for  out 
raged  public  sentiment  would  have  deprived  his 
party  of  the  power  to  confer  or  continue  political 
patronage.  This  class  took  kindly  to  the  new  sys 
tem  so  soon  as  it  was  well  understood ;  and  it  is  a 
proof  both  of  the  soundness  of  the  merit  system, 
and  of  a  certain  curious  virtue  in  the  "  average " 
American,  that,  during  the  three  years  that  the 
Curtis  rules  were  in  force,  a  very  large  amount  of 
careful  and  arduous  work  in  enforcing  them  was 
done  by  men  in  the  service  who  received  no  pay 
and  little  credit  therefor.  I  shall  take  up  later 
the  fate  of  this  first  attempt  at  reform,  and  return 
now  to  the  current  of  Mr.  Curtis's  life  apart  from 
this  task. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    GREELEY    CANVASS. 

As  President  Grant's  first  term  drew  to  a  close, 
the  country  began  to  show  definite  signs  of  the 
breaking  up  of  that  strong  and  fervent  party  spirit 
which  had  sustained  the  Republican  candidate  in 
the  election  of  1868.  "The  party  issues  of  the 
last  few  years,"  Mr.  Curtis  had  said  in  closing 
the  Civil  Service  Commission's  report  to  President 
Grant,  "  are  gradually  disappearing.  The  perilous 
questions  of  fundamental  policy  have  been  deter 
mined,  and  the  paramount  interests  of  the  coun 
try  are  now  those  of  administration.  Honesty 
and  efficiency  of  administration  of  the  settled  na 
tional  policy  will  now  be  the  chief  demand  of  every 
party."  This  was  true  of  public  sentiment,  but 
far  from  true  not  only  of  "  every  party,"  but  of 
any.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Republican  party, 
which  had  the  power  and  therefore  the  responsi 
bility,  had  met  the  demands  of  public  opinion. 
After  the  firm  hand  of  the  President  had  repressed 
the  violent  reaction  in  the  South  manifested  in 
what  were  known  as  the  "  Ku-Klux "  disorders, 
the  various  state  governments  in  that  region  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Republicans,  supported  by 


228  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

the  negro  vote,  and  had,  almost  without  exception, 
been  badly  and  corruptly  conducted.  It  was  plain 
that  the  chief  effort  of  the  leaders  of  the  majority 
in  Congress  was,  not  to  secure  peace,  order,  and 
prosperity  in  the  South,  but  to  strengthen  the  hold 
of  the  party  on  the  national  government.  With 
this  purpose  General  Grant  had  little  sympathy, 
and  with  the  means  employed  to  carry  it  out  he 
had  none.  But  he  was  without  experience,  and 
without  trained  capacity  in  civil  affairs.  His  hands 
were  tied  by  the  insidious  and  half -secret  bonds 
which  the  Senate  had  woven  about  the  executive 
during  the  term  of  Mr.  Johnson.  Within  the 
field  where  he  possessed  or  asserted  independence, 
he  was  sadly  at  a  loss.  His  judgment  of  men,  so 
swift  and  unerring  in  the  choice  of  his  subordi 
nates  in  the  army,  was  curiously  defective  in  the 
selection  of  civil  appointees.  His  Cabinet,  after  he 
had  got  rid  of  Judge  Hoar,  the  attorney-general, 
and  General  Cox,  of  the  Interior  Department, 
was,  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Hamilton  Fish,  the 
secretary  of  state,  singularly  feeble.  Then  he  had 
given  office  to  many  of  his  military  associates,  who 
had  won  his  confidence  and  affection  by  courage, 
energy,  and  soldierly  loyalty,  but  who  were  not  to 
be  trusted  in  civil  life,  and  who  almost  openly  held 
that  they  had  a  right  in  peace  to  get  as  they  could 
a  rich  reward  for  service  rendered  in  war.  His 
administration  had  given  occasion  for  many  small 
and  some  serious  scandals,  and  there  was  a  well- 
founded  though  not  very  definitely  formulated 


THE    G  REE  LEY    CANVASS.  229 

opinion  that  the  political  tone  of  the  Federal  gov 
ernment  was  being  steadily  lowered.  Besides  all 
this,  the  President's  scheme  for  the  annexation  of 
San  Domingo,  and  his  treatment  of  Mr.  Motley 
and  of  Senator  Sumner,  had  produced  a  feeling 
of  deep  resentment  among  some  of  the  most  able 
leaders  of  the  Republican  party.  • 

In  this  situation  what  was  known  as  the  Liberal 
Republican  movement  was  started.  Mr.  Curtis 
was  keenly  sensitive  to  the  unfortunate  tendencies 
against  which  this  movement  was  ostensibly,  and 
for  the  most  part  sincerely,  an  organized  protest ; 
but  he  had  a  deep  distrust  of  some  who  were  en 
gaged  in  it,  and  great  doubt  of  the  practical  meas 
ures  to  which  it  would  or  could  lead.  He  had, 
also,  much  confidence  in  the  personal  purity  and 
good  faith  of  the  President,  and  in  the  essential 
honesty  and  soundness  of  the  great  body  of  vot 
ers  who  made  up  the  Republican  party.  He  used' 
the  agencies  at  his  command  —  and  they  were  ex 
tremely  effective  —  to  expose  what  he  was  sure  was 
wrong  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  and  to  arouse 
the  conscience  and  intelligence  of  the  country  to 
correct  it.  But  he  knew  the  power  for  good  as  well 
as  for  ill  of  party  organization  and  party  sentiment ; 
he  despised  and  dreaded  the  most  pronounced  and 
apparently  the  controlling  tendencies  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  of  the  day,  which  was  still  the  party  of 
sympathy  with  secession,  of  hatred  of  the  negro,  of 
financial  repudiation,  and,  in  his  own  State,  the 
party  of  Tammany  and  of  Tweed ;  and,  though  anx- 


230  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

ious  and  even  disheartened  at  times,  he  could  not 
bring  himself  to  cut  adrift  from  the  Republican 
party.  When  the  Liberal  Republican  Convention 
in  Cincinnati  failed  to  name,  as  had  been  hoped,  Mr. 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  —  who  at  the  last  moment 
had  scornfully  repudiated  a  policy  of  "  truck  and 
dicker,"  and  had  bid  his  friends  "  draw  him  out  of 
that  crowd,"  —  and  had  nominated  Horace  Greeley 
for  the  Presidency,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton,  June 
30,  1872 :  - 

"  The  political  situation  is  described  by  saying 
that  the  Democratic  Convention  will  probably  nom 
inate  Horace  Greeley  by  acclamation  ! !  The  con 
test  will  be  Grant  against  the  field  ;  Grant  with  all 
his  faults,  —  and  they  are  not  great,  —  against 
every  kind  of  Democratic,  rebellious,  Ku-Klux,  dis 
contented,  hopeful,  and  unreasonable  feeling.  The 
best  sentiment  of  the  opposition  is,  that  both  parties 
must  be  destroyed,  and  Greeley's  election  is  the 
way  to  destroy  them.  This  is  Schurz's  ground,  who 
likes  Greeley  as  little  as  .any  of  us.  The  argument 
seems  to  be,  first  chaos,  then  cosmos.  The  4  Na 
tion  '  and  the  ;  Evening  Post '  in  this  dilemma 
take  Grant  as  the  least  of  evils.  He  has  been 
foully  slandered,  and  Sumner's  speech  was  unpar 
donable.  He  was  bitterly  indignant  with  me,- — 
said  that  my  course  was  inexplicable  and  inconsis 
tent,  and  that  I  was  bringing  unspeakable  woe 
upon  my  country.  I  could  only  reply,  '  Sumner, 
you  must  learn  that  other  men  are  as  honest  as  you/ 
This  election  is  the  last  hope  of  the  Democratic 


THE    GREELEY    CANVASS.  231 

party  to  recover  power.  The  South  is  wild  for 
Greeley,  but  only  because  his  name  now  means  a 
possible  Democratic  triumph.  He  excused  seces 
sion,  he  tried  to  negotiate  at  Niagara,  he  tried  to 
bully  Mr.  Lincoln  into  buying  a  peace,  he  bailed 
Jeff  Davis,  and  the  worst  Northern  Copperheads 
support  him.  That  is  enough  for  the  South  ;  it 
ought  to  be  enough  for  the  country," 

Early  in  September  he  wrote  again  from  Ash- 
field  (where  he  had  now  bought  a  house  and  land 
separated  by  one  field  only  from  the  house  of  Mr. 
Norton)  :  — 

"  The  reaction  against  Greeley  is  already  evident. 
Poor  Sumner  has  been  forced  to  fly.  I  am  not 
surprised.  I  thought  and  said  that  the  struggle 
of  joining  the  enemies  of  all  that  he  has  ever  pur 
sued  or  done  might  be  overwhelming,  and  in  Wash 
ington  he  was  old  and  sad  and  weary.  It  is  to  me 
a  very  melancholy  campaign ;  but,  like  all  others,  it 
is  very  important.  I  have  for  myself  less  and  less 
inclination  to  position.  We  shall  reelect  Grant, 
and  with  the  dissolution  of  the  Democratic  party 
new  combinations  will  arise." 

The  campaign  practically  culminated  with  the 
decisive  successes  of  the  Republicans  in  the  States 
(Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana)  which  then  had 
elections  in  October,  and  closed  with  the  overwhelm 
ing  defeat  of  the  Democratic  candidate  in  Novem 
ber.  In  the  last  days  of  November  Mr.  Greeley 
died.  Mr.  Curtis  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton  Decem 
ber  2d:~ 


232  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

"Now  comes  Greeley's  death,  one  of  the  most 
mournfully  tragic  of  events,  —  heart-break  and  in 
sanity;  and  a  great  gush  of  sentimental  twaddle 
from  all  the  newspapers ;  and,  that  nothing  may  be 
wanting  to  the  grotesque  pathos,  the  '  Tribune  '  pro 
poses  that  the  Greeley  electors  shall  vote  for  Grant ! 

"You  will  have  seen  how  nobly  the  President 
stood  fast  against  Cameron  in  the  Philadelphia 
post-office  matter.  I  suppose  that  there  must  be 
some  fight  upon  the  subject  in  Congress,  and  I 
know  nobody  there,  unless  it  be  George  Hoar,  who 
will  conduct  our  side  as  it  should  be  managed. 
Garfield  is  timid,  Willard  is  not  strong,  and  no 
one  that  I  know  upon  the  floor  is  master  of  the  sub 
ject.  The  Cabinet  is  not  friendly,  but  fortunately 
Grant  is  tenacious  and  resolved  upon  the  spirit 
which  should  govern  appointments.  I  suppose, 
however,  that  he  may  not  see  why  good  party  men 
should  not  be  taken." 

However  "  tenacious  and  resolved  upon  the  spirit 
which  should  govern  appointments  "  the  President 
was  in  December,  early  in  the  next  year  a  case 
arose  in  the  New  York  custom-house  in  which 
Mr.  Curtis  thought  that  that  spirit  was  so  far  vio 
lated  that  he  felt  that  he  could  not  retain  the  part 
of  chairman  of  the  commission.  It  was  in  no  sense 
a  question  of  personal  or  official  dignity.  It  was  a 
question  of  departing  so  seriously  from  the  standard 
which  he  had  publicly  adopted  as  to  compromise  the 
cause  of  reform  and  impair  if  not  destroy  his  abil 
ity  to  promote  it.  He  resigned  from  the  commission 


TEE    GREELEY    CANVASS.  233 

March  27,  1874.  After  he  had  reached  this  deci 
sion,  but  before  he  had  acted  upon  it,  he  was  stricken 
with  a  serious  illness.  Within  the  five  previous 
years  he  had  added  to  Ms  ordinary  work,  which 
was  by  no  means  light,  and  to  the  very  trying  and 
exposing  lecturing  tours,  first  the  labors  of  the 
Constitutional'  Convention,  and  then  those  of  the 
Civil  Service  Commission.  He  wrote  to  Mr.  Nor 
ton,  then  in  Europe  :  — 

March  12,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  CHARLES,  —  Anna  holds  the  pen  for 
me  to  thank  you  for  your  thoughtful  and  affection 
ate  letter.  It  comes  from  your  sick-bed  to  mine, 
for  I  have  put  the  last  feather  on  my  patient  cam 
el's  back,  and  he  is  broken  down.  About  four 
weeks  ago  I  came  home  from  a  short,  hard  trip  to 
the  West,  worn  out  and  ill.  For  a  week  I  fought 
a  fever  which  threatened  several  bad  things,  but  all 
the  bad  symptoms  have  left  me  except  a  pudding- 
head  and  general  prostration.  I  lie  on  the  couch 
most  all  day,  and  am  ordered  to  rest  absolutely  for 
six  months.  So  you  will  find  me  when  you  return 
what  you  first  knew  me,  —  a  gentleman  of  elegant 
and  boundless  leisure.  It  is  a  sorry  story,  and  I 
know  you  will  be  pained  to  hear  it.  I  shall  have 
to  work  much  more  moderately  hereafter,  and  am 
profoundly  mortified  to  have  brought  myself  to 
this  pause.  When  I  am  able  to  move  I  shall  per 
haps  go  for  a  month  to  John  Field's,  at  Newport, 
who  most  affectionately  urges  me. 


234  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

It  makes  me  better  to  think  of  your  all  coming 
home  again  ;  and  with  most  unchanging  love  to  all 
of  you,  I  am  your  always  affectionate, 

G.  W.  C. 

The  half  year  of  rest,  if  not  of  absolute  rest, 
was  taken,  and  restored  him  to  nearly  his  usual 
vigor  and  elasticity.  The  following  winter  he  gave 
up  his  lectures.  He  wrote :  — 

28  December,  1873. 

It  is  my  first  winter  at  home  for  nearly  twenty 
years,  and,  as  I  am  not  very  busy,  except  with 
reading,  it  is  in  every  way  delightful.  It  is  pleas 
ant  to  have  my  say  upon  public  affairs  with  per 
fect  independence,  and  to  feel,  as  I  have  occasion 
to  know,  that  it  is  not  without  result.  I  am  often 
very  sorry  for  the  P  [resident,]  seldom  angry  with 
him,  and  must  smile  when  I  reflect  that  Keid, 
Jennings,  Marble,  and  young  Bennett  are  the  great 
and  awful  "morning  press  "  of  New  York! 

The  situation  in  public  affairs  was  extremely 
confused.  u  In  '21,"  he  remarked,  "  the  next  step 
could  be  seen,  but  now  it  is  wholly  hidden."  He 
saw,  however,  what  it  might  ultimately  require, 
and  he  wrote  to  a  correspondent:  "The  right 
and  duty,  upon  proper  occasion,  to  bolt,  are  the 
right  and  duty  of  being  honest.  The  way  to  secure 
the  nomination  of  honest  men  is  to  refuse  to  vote 
for  those  who  are  not  honest." 

Commenting  on  the  financial  legislation  in  the 


THE    GREELEY    CANVASS.  235 

direction  of  inflation  of  the  currency,  he  re 
marked  :  "  The  Republican  party,  in  unquestioned 
possession  of  the  government,  has  no  policy  upon 
any  of  the  most  pressing  questions  before  the  coun- 
try." 

He  received  the  veto  by  President  Grant  of  the 
Inflation  Bill  as  an  act  of  the  highest  civic  cour 
age,  and  one  which  saved  the  country  from  the 
utter  demoralization  with  which  the  dominant 
party  threatened  it,  but  he  condemned  with  plain 
ness  the  failure  of  the  President  to  follow,  in  his 
administration  of  the  civil  service  outside  of  the 
rules  of  the  commission,  the  principle  declared  and 
embodied  in  the  rules.  The  election  of  a  Demo 
cratic  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
was  not  unexpected  by  him.  He  wrote  to  Mr. 
Norton  on  the  morrow  of  the  election :  — 

November  9,  '74. 

Well,  my  dearest  Charles,  I  am  no  more  sur 
prised  than  you.  For  two  years  the  storm  has 
been  in  the  air.  How  I  wish  it  could  have  been 
averted !  The  result  is  another  of  the  constant 
proofs  of  the  impracticability  of  "  political  men," 
and  of  the  wisdom  of  babes  and  sucklings.  It 
was  meant,  and  will  be  interpreted  by  many,  as  an 
admonition.  It  is  that,  and  will  be  of  great  service. 
But  I  do  not  feel  sure  of  the  end.  I  am  disposed 
to  think  that  a  party  which  has  been  adjudged  un 
equal  to  the  situation  will  hardly  be  called  to  deal 
with  it  again  until  the  other  parfy  has  been  tri( 


236  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

And  as  the  other  party  has  so  great  a  proportion  of 
the  dangerous  elements  of  the  country  in  it,  I  feel, 
not  surprised  nor  disappointed  nor  regretful,  for 
it  was  inevitable,  but  I  do  feel  very  sober. 

Early  in  1874  Charles  Sumner  died.  It  is  evi 
dence  of  the  esteem  in  which  Mr.  Curtis  was  held 
that,  though  a  firm  and  convinced  opponent  of  the 
political  movement  of  which  Mr.  Sumner  was  in 
his  last  years  one  of  the  most  prominent  leaders, 
he  was  invited  by  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts 
to  deliver  a  eulogy  upon  the  Senator,  which  he  did 
(June  9,  1874).  It  was  a  very  noble  address,  and 
may  be  said  to  mark  the  opening  of  a  new  phase 
of  the  career  of  Mr.  Curtis  as  an  orator.  He  had 
now  practically  abandoned  the  lectures  which  he 
had  taken  up  nearly  twenty  years  previous,  and 
pursued  with  a  steadfast  and  self-denying  energy, 
upon  an  object  that  suggests  the  labors  of  Walter 
Scott  in  his  old  age.  By  these,  and  by  his  politi 
cal  speeches,  he  was  known  and  greatly  esteemed. 
He  was  now  to  undertake  a  much  higher  and  more 
difficult  class  of  oratory,  by  which  in  the  next 
twenty  years  his  reputation  was  greatly  to  be  ex 
tended,  and,  as  I  think,  established  on  a  lasting 
foundation.  I  select  from  this  address  a  few  brief 
passages  fairly  indicative  of  the  tone  of  the  whole, 
but  having  an  added  interest  from  the  light  they 
throw  on  Mr.  Curtis's  own  character  and  his  sub 
sequent  course : — 

"  Mr.  Sumner   knew,  as  every  intelligent  man 


THE    GREELEY    CANVASS.  237 

knows,  that  from  the  day  when  Themistocles  led 
the  educated  Athenians  at  Salamis  to  that  when 
Von  Moltke  marshaled  the  educated  Germans 
against  France,  the  sure  foundations  of  states  are 
laid  in  knowledge,  not  in  ignorance,  and  that  every 
sneer  at  education,  at  culture,  at  book-learning, 
which  is  the  recorded  wisdom  of  the  experience  of 
mankind,  is  the  demagogue's  sneer  at  intelligent 
liberty,  inviting  national  degeneration  and  ruin.  .  .  . 

"  While  great  political  results  are  to  be  gained 
by  means  of  great  parties,  he  knew  that  a  party 
which  is  too  blind  to  see,  or  too  cowardly  to  ac 
knowledge,  the  real  issue,  —  which  pursues  its  ends, 
however  noble,  by  ignoble  means,  which  tolerates 
corruption,  which  trusts  unworthy  men,  which  suf 
fers  the  public  service  to  be  prostituted  to  personal 
ends,  —  defies  reason  and  conscience,  and  summons 
all  honest  men  to  oppose  it.  ... 

"  During  all  that  tremendous  time,  on  the  one 
hand  enthusiastically  trusted,  on  the  other  con 
temptuously  scorned  and  hated,  his  heart  was  that 
of  a  little  child.  He  said  no  unworthy  word,  he 
did  no  unmanly  deed ;  dishonor  fled  his  face  ;  and 
to-day  those  who  so  long  and  so  naturally,  but  so 
wrongfully,  believed  him  their  enemy,  strew  rose 
mary  for  remembrance  upon  his  grave.  .  .  . 

"  This  is  the  great  victory,  the  great  lesson,  the 
great  legacy  of  his  life,  that  the  fidelity  of  a  public 
man  to  conscience,  not  to  party,  is  rewarded  with 
the  sincerest  popular  love  and  confidence.  What 
an  inspiration  to  every  youth,  longing  with  generous 


238  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

ambition  to  enter  the  great  arena  of  the  state,  that 
he  must  heed  first  and  always  the  divine  voice  in 
his  own  soul,  if  he  would  be  sure  of  the  liv 
ing  voices  of  good  fame !  Living,  how  Sumner 
served  us !  and,  dying  at  this  moment,  how  he 
serves  us  still !  In  a  time  when  politics  seem 
peculiarly  mean  and  selfish  and  corrupt,  when  there 
is  a  general  vague  apprehension  that  the  very 
moral  foundations  of  the  national  character  are 
loosened,  when  good  men  are  painfully  anxious  to 
know  whether  the  heart  of  the  people  is  hardened, 
Charles  Sumner  dies;  and  the  universality  and 
sincerity  of  sorrow,  such  as  the  death  of  no  man 
left  living  among  us  could  awaken,  show  how  true, 
how  sound,  how  generous,  is  still  the  heart  of  the 
American  people.  This  is  the  dying  service  of 
Charles  Sumner,  a  revelation  which  inspires  every 
American  to  bind  his  shining  example  as  a  frontlet 
between  the  eyes,  and  never  again  to  despair  of 
the  highest  and  more  glorious  destiny  of  his  coun- 
try." 


CHAPTER  XVIH. 

THE    REACTION  — 1874    TO    1876. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1874  Mr.  Curtis  wrote  to  Mr. 
Norton :  "  I  am  invited  to  deliver  the  Centennial 
Oration  at  Concord  on  the  19th,  and  I  shall  ac 
cept."  The  Concord  celebration  was  the  first  of 
the  long  series  commemorating  the  events  of  the 
Revolution,  and  it  was  Mr.  Curtis's  peculiar  for 
tune  not  only  to  open  the  series  at  Concord,  but 
to  close  it  with  the  address  at  the  unveiling  of  the 
Washington  Statue  at  New  York  in  1883.  The 
Concord  oration  is  noteworthy  for  the  spirited 
review  of  the  story  of  the  day,  for  its  masterly 
tribute  to  Samuel  Adams,  and  for  the  succinct  and 
impressive  statement  of  the  conditions  surrounding 
the  birth  of  the  Revolution.  It  was  inevitable  that 
Mr.  Curtis  should  close  by  applying  the  lesson  of 
the  earlier  day  to  the  problems  of  the  later.  But 
in  doing  this  he  could  not  conceal  the  grave  anx 
iety  by  which  he  was  possessed.  His  spirit  was 
hopeful  and  courageous,  but  in  the  presence  of  the 
President,  whose  iron  determination  and  honest 
purpose,  sustained  by  a  hold  on  the  affections  of 
the  people  only  surpassed  by  that  of  Lincoln  and 
Washington,  had  palpably  failed  to  turn  back  or 


240  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

seriously  to  stem  the  tide  of  political  demoraliza 
tion  with  which  Mr.  Curtis  was  himself  struggling, 
the  orator's  native  hope  and  courage  could  point  to 
no  assurance  of  near  progress.  The  closing  words 
of  the  address  were  of  high  and  impassioned  ex 
hortation,  but  they  were  distinctly  sad. 

For  in  the  spring  of  1875  it  had  become  plain 
that  General  Grant  had  surrendered,  and  was  not 
prepared  for  the  fight  which  must  be  made  if  the 
reform  of  the  civil  service  was  even  to  be  main 
tained  within  the  scope  of  the  rules.  He  sub 
mitted  to  Congress,  at  the  opening  of  the  short 
session  in  December,  a  recommendation  for  the 
continuance  of  the  appropriation,  but  in  a  tone 
that  clearly  implied  that  he  would  abandon  the 
plan  if  the  appropriation  were  withheld.  It  was 
refused,  and  on  March  27th  the  rules  were  sus 
pended,  and  the  work  of  the  commissioners  came 
to  an  end.  It  was,  of  course,  a  severe  blow  to  the 
hopes  of  Mr.  Curtis,  but  it  did  not  shake  his  in 
domitable  devotion.  Very  much  had  been  gained. 
The  principle  of  appointment  for  proved  merit  had 
been  embodied  in  a  definite,  working  system ;  and 
the  system  had  stood  admirably  the  test,  not 
merely  of  experience,  but  of  experience  with  the 
most  bitter  and  unscrupulous  opposition  from  men 
of  influence  in  public  life,  with  inefficient  and  ill- 
trained  subordinate  officers,  and  with  all  the  diffi 
culties  growing  from  the  looseness  and  low  morals 
of  the  service.  No  one  could  deny  that  it  had 
worked  well  in  exact  proportion  to  the  fidelity 


THE  REACTION.  241 

with  which  it  had  been  applied.  It  had  been 
proved  beyond  all  cavil  that  it  would  secure  for 
the  government  competent  persons  of  a  high  aver 
age  character.  The  provision  for  probation  had 
been  an  entire  protection  against  the  possible 
defects  of  competitive  examinations,  and  these 
defects  had  been  found  to  be  insignificant.  In 
practice  the  appointees  standing  highest  in  the 
examinations  had,  with  very  few  and  slight  excep 
tions,  passed  with  equal  success  the  test  of  proba 
tion,  and  had  steadily  improved  in  efficiency  after 
entering  the  service.  The  testimony  of  the  officers 
in  authority  in  the  various  departments  was  en 
tirely  favorable,  and  for  the  most  part  heartily 
favorable,  as  to  the  effect  of  the  system  on  the 
service.  On  the  other  hand  the  immense  advan 
tage  to  them  of  the  relief  from  worry  and  waste  of 
time  in  dealing  with  the  office-seekers  was  gener 
ally  recognized.  It  was  shown  beyond  all  doubt 
that  the  honest  enforcement  of  the  system  ex 
cluded  party  politics  from  the  service  to  the  great 
gain  of  both.  In  short,  the  three  years  from  1872 
to  1875  had  established  the  entire  soundness  of 
the  reform,  and  its  complete  certainty,  when  honor 
ably  applied,  to  do  all  that  its  authors  had  pre 
dicted,  promised,  or  even  hoped. 

It  is  a  natural  question,  why  it  was  not  persisted 
in.  The  answer  may  be  given  in  the  words  of 
Mr.  Curtis  twelve  years  later :  "  It  was  once  my 
duty  to  say  to  President  Grant  that  the  adverse 
pressure  of  the  Republican  party  would  overpower 


242  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

his  purpose  of  reform.  He  replied  with  a  smile 
that  he  was  used  to  pressure.  He  smiled  incredu 
lously,  but  he  presently  abandoned  the  reform." 
The  "  adverse  pressure  of  the  Republican  party " 
was  of  a  kind  to  which  General  Grant  was  in  no 
wise  used.  The  pressure  of  a  hostile  force  upon 
the  lines  he  could  meet,  for  he  could  have  no  pos 
sible  desire  to  yield  to  it  or  escape  from  it.  The 
pressure  of  civilians,  when  he  was  in  military 
command,  he  could  also  resist,  for  his  authority 
was  complete,  his  responsibility  was  definite  and 
exacting,  and  he  knew  perfectly  what  must  be  the 
consequences  if  he  gave  way.  He  knew,  too,  that 
if  he  did  not  give  way  the  civilians  must.  But 
the  pressure  of  political  friends  high  in  the  party 
leadership  was  a  wholly  different  force.  It  was  at 
once  powerful,  subtle,  unceasing,  and  indirect.  It 
enveloped  him  like  an  atmosphere,  and  was  often 
most  potent  when  he  was  not  conscious  of  it.  The 
men  who  brought  this  pressure  to  bear  were  far 
too  shrewd  to  let  him  understand  their  real  object, 
or  to  arouse  in  him  anything  like  antagonism. 
They  came  to  him  as  to  the  titular  head  of  'the 
party ;  they  made  him  feel  that  the  success  of  the 
party  depended  on  strong  and  prudent  organiza 
tion,  that  this  could  be  effected  only  by  a  proper 
distribution  of  the  offices,  and  that  distribution  of 
offices  by  "  schoolmasters'  examinations "  would 
tend  to  weaken  and  demoralize  the  party.  They 
presented  the  party  to  him  in  the  light  of  analogy 
to  an  army,  of  which  he  was  the  chief,  they  were 


THE    REACTION.  243 

the  generals,  and  the  place-holders  were  the  subor 
dinate  officers.  At  every  step  they  showed  him 
ease,  popularity,  success,  honor,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other  the  barren  results  of  a  futile 
effort  to  carry  out  a  visionary  scheme,  the  only 
practical  outcome  of  which  would  be  to  give  aid 
and  comfort  to  the  enemy.  And  I  do  not  at  all 
deny  that  many  of  those  through  whom  this  pres 
sure  was  exerted  were  entirely  sincere  in  their 
views,  while  some  of  them  were  unselfish  and  pa 
triotic  in  their  motives.  They  were  veterans  of 
hard-won  victories  for  the  Republican  cause  in  a 
struggle  where  offices  had  been  freely  used  to 
build  up  and  maintain  the  organization,  and  they 
were  convinced  that  to  give  up  the  offices  was  so 
plainly  injurious  as  to  be  party  treason.  The 
questions  of  the  war  were  settled.  The  people 
were  no  longer  sharply  divided  by  distinct  issues. 
The  opponents  of  the  Republican  party  were  stead 
ily  gaining  strength.  These  men  felt,  and  to  some 
extent  they  made  President  Grant  feel,  that  in  such 
a  strait,  with  a  doubtful  or  at  least  a  very  diffi 
cult  national  campaign  coming  on,  it  would  be  folly 
jbo  reject  any  resources  within  reach  of  the  party. 
They  could  not  see,  nor  could  he,  that  the  use  of 
the  Federal  offices  as  "patronage"  or  "spoils,"  as 
the  reward  and  incentive  of  political  effort,  was  in 
reality  throwing  away  that  supreme  resource,  the 
confidence  of  intelligent  men  in  the  honesty  and 
unselfishness  of  the  purposes  of  a  party.  Mr. 
Curtis's  view  was  opposed  to  theirs,  and  a  few 


244  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

brief  months  was  to  verify  it.  "  History  teaches," 
he  said,  "  no  lesson  more  distinctly  than  that  no 
thing  is  so  practical  as  principle,  nothing  so  little 
visionary  as  honesty.  Political  movements,  like 
all  other  good  causes,  are  constantly  betrayed  by 
the  ignorance  which  thinks  itself  smartness,  and 
the  contempt  of  ideas  which  is  practical  common 
sense." 

The  next  year  was  one  of  relative  quiet  for 
Mr.  Curtis.  He  turned  to  his  work  on  "  Harper's 
Weekly  "  with  a  sense  of  relief,  on  the  one  hand, 
from  the  pressure  of  official  responsibility,  and  on 
the  other  with  renewed  determination  to  educate, 
arouse,  and  direct  public  opinion  toward  the  reform 
which  had  become  the  chief  object  of  his  life  in 
public  affairs.  He  enjoyed  his  tranquil  home  and 
the  fairly  settled  round  of  professional  duties  with 
a  deep  content.  A  glimpse  of  the  family  life  is 
afforded  in  the  following  note  to  Mr.  Lowell,  re 
ferring  to  the  ode  read  by  the  author  at  Concord 
at  the  Centennial  Celebration : 

WEST  NEW  BRIGHTON,  STATEN  ISLAND,  N.  Y., 
17th  May,  1875. 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  read  and  then  re-read 
your  ode  last  evening  to  the  assembled  family,  and 
I  cannot  tell  you  how  fine,  how  superb,  it  seems  to 
all  of  us.  It  is  full  of  the  noblest  thought,  —  of 
the  loftiest  melody.  The  dance  of  a  thousand  rills 
is  in  it,  and  the  murmur  of  old  woods.  If  you 
have  ever  done  anything  more  satisfactory  I  don't 
know  it. 


THE  REACTION".  245 

This  line  is  only  to  say  that  I  can't  say  any 
thing  but  to  tell  you  that  all  who  love  liberty  will 
love  it  and  you  the  more  for  this  glorious  strain. 
We  are  all  well,  and  all  send  you  our  love. 
Your  most  affectionate 

G.  W.  C. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Norton,  alluding  to  a  week  in 
Washington,  there  is  a  note  of  the  really  moment 
ous  election  that  was  approaching :  — 

28th  February,  1876. 

I  returned  Friday  from  Washington,  where  I 
had  passed  a  week  with  the 'Bancrofts.  Nothing 
could  surpass  their  kindness.  From  the  moment  I 
came  until  that  which  saw  me  off,  I  was  passed 
along  from  one  interest  and  pleasure  to  another, 
seeing  and  hearing  all  that  is  most  desirable  in 
Washington.  I  think  the  most  extraordinary 
thing  I  learned  was  that,  a  little  while  ago,  Sam 
Ward  (California  and  lobby  Sam)  had  the  whole 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States — Chief  Jus 
tice  and  all  —  to  dine  with  him  at  Welcker's  on  a 
Sunday  afternoon ! 

/  dined  at  the  secretary  of  state's  with  Fer 
nando  Wood,  handing  out  Mrs.  Fish  to  dinner. 

All  that  I  saw  and  heard  of  Bristow,  whom  I 
knew  four  years  ago  in  Washington,  was  good  and 
satisfactory.  I  asked  Jewell,  at  the  attorney-gen 
eral's  table,  whom  the  party  —  not  the  managers 
—  would  make  the  candidate,  #nd  he  answered  in 
stantly,  "  Bristow." 


246  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Mr.  Benjamin  H.  Bristow,  as  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  had  won  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the 
best  men  of  the  Republican  party  by  the  energy 
and  simple  fidelity  with  which  he  had  undertaken 
to  prosecute  extensive  frauds  on  the  internal  rev 
enue,  known  as  the  "whiskey  frauds."  He  was  a 
native  of  Kentucky,  had  served  honorably  in  the 
Union  army,  and  had  taken  an  earnest  interest  in 
the  reform  of  the  civil  service.  In  the  following 
summer  Mr.  Curtis  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the 
Republican  National  Convention,  and  supported 
the  nomination  of  Mr.  Bristow,  though  he  finally 
voted  for  that  of  Mr.  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  lead 
ing  the  opposition  to  Senator  Conkling,  who  then 
represented  the  administration  element  in  the 
party  in  the  State  of  New  York.  It  is  not  neces 
sary  here  to  recite  the  situation  in  which  the  elec 
tion  left  the  country.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
the  electoral  votes  of  South  Carolina,  Florida,  and 
Louisiana,  and  a  part  of  those  of  Oregon,  were  in 
dispute ;  that  a  single  one  of  these  votes  given  to 
Mr.  Tilden,  the  Democratic  candidate,  would  have 
been  sufficient  to  elect  him ;  that  there  were  two 
sets  of  electoral  votes  from  these  States  sent  to 
Washington ;  that  the  House  of  Representatives 
had  a  Democratic  majority,  the  Senate  a  Repub 
lican  majority ;  that  the  votes  were  to  be  opened 
by  the  President  of  the  Senate  and  counted  in  the 
presence  of  both  houses.  The  Republican  claim 
was,  that  the  President  of  the  Senate  could  decide 
which  votes  should  be  opened  and  submitted ;  the 


THE  REACTION. 

Democratic  claim  was,  that  all  votes  must 
opened  and  submitted,  and  the  choice  made  as  to 
disputed  votes  by  each  house,  the  assent  of  both 
being  necessary  to  an  election.  The  former  course 
would  have  given  the  election  to  Mr.  Hayes,  the 
latter  to  Mr.  Tilden.  The  country  was  in  a  state 
of  the  deepest  confusion.  Party  feeling  ran  very 
high.  The  passions  of  the  war  were  reawakened, 
and  the  dread  possibility  of  civil  strife  was  oppress 
ing  or  exciting  the  minds  of  all. 

At  the  very  height  of  the  struggle,  and  before 
any  peaceful  solution  of  it  had  been  even  plausibly 
argued,  Mr.  Curtis  was  called  upon  to  speak  at  the 
dinner  of  the  New  England  Society  of  New  York 
on  the  22d  of  December.  He  had  chosen  as  his 
toast  "  The  Puritan  Principle :  Liberty  under  the 
Law."  His  speech  was  a  brief  one,  and  it  was 
so  complete  an  example  of  the  spirit  in  which  he 
met  every  occasion,  and  plucked  from  its  heart 
the  deepest  meaning,  that  I  shall  quote  (from  the 
society's  report)  the  latter  half  of  it :  — 

"Do  you  ask  me,  then,  what  is  this  Puritan 
principle  ?  Do  you  ask  me  whether  it  is  as  good 
for  to-day  as  for  yesterday;  whether  it  is  good 
for  every  national  emergency ;  whether  it  is  good 
for  the  situation  of  this  hour?  I  think  we  need 
neither  doubt  nor  fear.  The  Puritan  principle  in 
its  essence  is  simply  individual  freedom.  From 
that  spring  religious  liberty  and  political  equality. 
The  free  state,  the  free  church,  the  free  school,  — 
these  are  the  triple  armor  of  American  nationality, 


248  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

of  American  security.  But  the  Pilgrims,  while 
they  have  stood  above  all  men  for  this  idea  of  lib 
erty,  have  always  asserted  liberty  under  law,  and 
never -separated  it  from  law.  \  John  Robinson,  in 
the  letter  that  he  wrote  the  Pilgrims  when  they 
sailed,  said  these  words,  that  well,  sir,  might  be 
written  in  gold  around  the  cornice  of  that  future 
banqueting  hall  to  which  you  have  alluded  :  '  You 
know  that  the  image  of  the  Lord's  dignity  and 
authority  which  the  magistry  beareth  is  honor 
able  in  how  mean  person  soever.'  (Applause.) 
This  is  the  Puritan  principle.  Those  men  stood 
for  liberty  under  the  law.  They  had  tossed  long 
upon  a  wintry  sea ;  their  minds  were  full  of  images 
derived  from  their  voyage  ;  they  knew  that  the  will 
of  the  people  alone  is  but  a  gale  smiting  a  rudder 
less  and  sailless  ship,  and  hurling  it,  a  mass  of 
wreck,  upon  the  rocks.  But  the  will  of  the  people 
subject  to  law  is  the  same  gale  filling  the  trim 
canvas  of  a  ship  that  minds  the  helm,  bearing  it 
over  yawning  and  awful  abysses  of  ocean  safely  to 
port.  (Loud  applause.) 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  in  this  country  the  Puritan 
principle  has  advanced  to  this  point,  that  it  pro 
vides  a  lawful  remedy  for  every  emergency  that 
may  arise.  I  stand  here  as  a  son  of  New  Eng 
land.  In  every  fibre  of  my  being,  I  am  a  child 
of  the  Pilgrim.  The  most  knightly  of  all  the 
gentlemen  at  Elizabeth's  court  said  to  the  young 
poet,  when  he  would  write  an  immortal  song, 
'  Look  into  thy  heart  and  write.'  And  I,  sirs  and 


THE  REACTION.  249 

brothers,  if,  looking  into  my  own  heart  at  this 
moment,  I  might  dare  to  think  that  what  I  find 
written  there  is  written  also  upon  the  heart  of 
my  mother,  clad  in  her  snows  at  home,  her  voice 
in  this  hour  would  be  a  message  spoken  from  the 
land  of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  capital  of  this  na 
tion, —  a  message  like  that  which  Patrick  Henry 
sent  from  Virginia  to  Massachusetts  when  he  heard 
of  Concord  and  Lexington  :  4 1  am  not  a  Virgin 
ian,  I  am  an  American.'  (Great  applause.)  And 
so,  gentlemen,  at  this  hour  we  are  not  Republicans, 
we  are  not  Democrats,  we  are  Americans.  (Tre 
mendous  applause.) 

"  The  voice  of  New  England,  I  believe,  going  to 
the  capital,  would  be  this,  that,  neither  is  the  Re 
publican  Senate  to  insist  upon  its  exclusive  parti 
san*  way,  nor  is  the  Democratic  House  to  insist 
upon  its  exclusive  partisan  way;  but  Senate  and 
House,  representing  the  American  people  and  the 
American  people  only,  in  the  light  of  the  Constitu 
tion  and  by  the  authority  of  the  law,  are  to  provide 
a  way  over  which  a  President,  be  he  Republican 
or  be  he  Democrat,  shall  pass  unchallenged  to  his 
chair.  (Vociferous  applause,  the  company  rising 
to  their  feet.)  Ah,  gentlemen  (renewed  applause), 
—  think  not,  Mr.  President,  that  I  am  forgetting 
the  occasion  or  its  amenities.  (Cries  of  4  No,  no,' 
and  '  Go  on.')  I  am  remembering  the  Puritans ;  I 
am  remembering  Plymouth  Rock  and  the  virtues 
that  made  it  illustrious.  (A  voice  —  '  Justice.') 
But  we,  gentlemen,  are  to  imitate  those  virtues,  as 


250  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

our  toast  says,  only  by  being  greater  than  the  men 
who  stood  upon  that  rock.  As  this  gay  and  lux 
urious  banquet  to  their  scant  and  severe  fare, 
so  must  our  virtues,  to  be  worthy  of  them,  be 
greater  and  richer  than  theirs.  And  as  we  are 
three  centuries  older,  so  we  should  be  three  cen 
turies  wiser  than  they.  Sons  of  the  Pilgrims,  you 
are  not  to  level  forests,  you  are  not  to  war  with 
savage  men  and  savage  beasts,  you  are  not  to  tame 
a  continent  nor  even  found  a  state.  Our  task  is 
nobler,  is  diviner.  Our  task,  sir,  is  to  reconcile 
a  nation.  It  is  to  curb  the  fury  of  party  spirit. 
It  is  to  introduce  a  loftier  and  manlier  spirit 
everywhere  into  our  political  life.  It  is  to  edu 
cate  every  boy  and  every  girl,  and  then  to  leave 
them  perfectly  free  to  go  from  any  school  to  any 
church.  Above  all,  sir,  it  is  to  protect  absolutely 
the  equal  rights  of  the  poorest  and  the  richest,  of 
the  most  ignorant  and  most  intelligent  citizen  ;  and 
it  is  to  stand  forth,  brethren,  as  a  triple  wall  of 
brass  around  our  native  land  against  the  mad 
blows  of  violence  or  the  fatal  dry-rot  of  fraud. 
(Loud  applause.)  And  at  this  moment,  sir,  the 
grave  and  austere  shades  of  the  forefathers  whom 
we  invoke  bend  above  us  in  benediction  as  they 
call  us  to  this  sublime  task.  This,  brothers  and 
friends,  this  is  to  imitate  the  virtues  of  our  fore 
fathers  ;  this  is  to  make  our  day  as  glorious  as 
theirs."  (Great  applause,  followed  by  three 
cheers  for  the  speaker.) 

I  have  quoted  this  speech  from  the  New  Eng- 


THE   REACTION.  251 

land  Society's  report,  and  I  have  included  notes  of 
the  applause,  because  they  give  the  reader  an  im 
pression  of  the  effect  of  the  speech  upon  an  audi 
ence,  which,  even  after  dinner,  as  those  familiar 
with  it  will  concede,  is  more  easily  amused  than 
stirred.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  influ 
ence  of  the  speech  was  considerable  in  determining 
the  acceptance  of  the  plan  of  a  commission,  and  of 
the  decision  of  the  commission,  when  reached  on  the 
eve  of  the  inauguration.  It  is  not  easy  at  this  dis 
tance  to  conceive  the  real  peril  of  the  situation. 
As  I  have  said,  it  was  the  passions  of  the  war  that 
were  reawakened  and  intensified.  Many  Repub 
licans  believed  that  Mr.  Tilden's  accession  to  the 
Presidency  meant  the  loss  of  all  that  had  been 
gained  by  the  war.  Many  Democrats,  especially 
in  the  South,  believed  that  Mr.  Hayes's  accession 
meant  the  extension  to  the  national  government  of 
the  corruption  and  greed  of  the  "carpet-bag"  re 
gime  in  the  South.  In  the  absence  of  an  arbitra 
tion  agreed  to  by  both  sides,  either  party  would 
have  been  furious  at  facing  such  dangers  and 
wrongs  as  they  believed  involved,  and  no  President 
with  a  title  depending  on  a  disputed  and  technical 
interpretation  of  an  obscure  statute  could  have 
faced  such  fury  without  grave  risks.  To  have 
contributed  in  an  appreciable  degree  to  the  dissi 
pation  of  the  storm  thus  threatened  is  no  slight 
claim  to  the  grateful  admiration  of  the  country. 
This  Mr.  Curtis  did  in  a  speech  of  but  a  few  minutes. 
The  speech  is  interesting  also  because,  though  it  was 


252  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

not  unpremeditated,  it  bears  marks  of  being  wholly 
unprepared.  In  the  quiet  of  his  study  Mr.  Curtis 
would  not  have  written  out  the  slightly  confused 
metaphors  which,  in  the  fervor  of  the  occasion, 
rushed  one  upon  another,  for  he  was  singularly 
careful  in  the  construction  of  his  periods  when  he 
took  time  to  construct  them  in  advance.  These 
traits  of  the  speech,  however,  only  deepen  the  im 
pression  of  the  power  of  the  speaker  whose  un- 
marshaled  utterances  so  deeply  moved  his  hearers, 
and,  twenty  years  later,  must  still  move  the  reader. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS. 

AT  the  outset  of  Mr.  Hayes's  administration, 
he  sought  diligently  to  connect  with  it  men  whose 
names  would  give  it  the  prestige  which  his  own 
modest  career  did  not  supply,  and  which  the  cir 
cumstances  of  his  election  tended  to  make  difficult. 
Among  others  he  turned  to  Mr.  Curtis,  who  wrote 
as  follows  to  Mr.  Norton :  — 

19th  May,  1877. 

When  the  President  was  here  during  the  last 
week,  Mr.  Evarts  offered  me  my  choice  of  the 
chief  missions,  evidently  expecting  that  I  would 
choose  the  English. 

Putting  myself  out  of  the  question,  would  it  not 
be  equally  serviceable  to  the  good  cause  and  the 
administration  if  it  were  openly  offered  to  me,  and 
declined  by  me  in  a  way  to  give  the  administration 
the  credit,  and  upon  the  ground,  not  of  shirking 
the  public  service,  but  of  my  preference  for  my 
present  public  duty  ?  That  is,  could  not  all  the 
public  advantage  be  gained  by  the  offer,  and  would 
not  the  advantage  be  greater  than  the  injury  to  the 
administration  of  turning  to  a  second  choice  ?  If 
the  administration  are  not  willing  to  have  the  offer 
known  unless  I  accept,  ought  I  to  insist  ? 


254  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Tell  me  briefly  what  you  think,  and  whether  you 
think,  in  any  case,  that  a  man  absolutely  without 
legal  training  of  any  kind  could  be  a  proper  min 
ister.  I  know  that  you  love  me,  but  I  confide  in 
your  perfect  candor.  Please  say  nothing  of  it  to 
any  one. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Curtis  was  not  insensi 
ble  to  the  attractions  of  this  offer,  nor, -at  first, 
decided  to  put  it  aside.  But  finally  he  did  so,  and 
unquestionably  chiefly  from  the  motive  ascribed  in 
Lowell's  lines :  — 

"  At  courts,  in  senates,  who  so  fit  to  serve  ? 
And  both  invited,  but  you  would  not  swerve, 
All  meaner  prizes  waiving1  that  you  might 
In  civic  duty  spend  your  heat  and  light, 
Unpaid,  untrammeled,  with  a  sweet  disdain 
Refusing  posts  men  grovel  to  attain." 

This  is  the  poet's  way  of  putting  it.  I  do  not 
think  that  there  was  in  Mr.  Curtis's  mind  a  trace 
of  "  disdain,"  even  of  "  sweet  disdain,"  for  the 
post  of  representative  of  his  country  at  a  foreign 
court,  and  particularly  at  the  court  of  St.  James. 
On  the  contrary,  however  he  might  regard  the  mo 
tives  of  some  who  sought  such  places,  he  under 
stood  clearly  enough  the  honor  they  brought  to 
those  who  honorably  filled  them.  His  doubt,  as 
his  note  to  Mr.  Norton  shows,  was  as  to  his  own 
fitness.  He  might  have  dismissed  that,  had  his 
modesty  permitted  him  to  remember  Irving  in 
Spain,  Bancroft  in  Germany,  Motley  in  England, 
Marsh  in  Italy.  And,  since  it  is  Lowell's  view  I 


THE  PARTING    OF   THE  WAYS.  255 

am  talking  of,  I  cannot  but  picture  to  myself  the 
impression  our  English  friends  would  have  had 
of  the  American  representative,  and  particularly 
of  the  American  "  occasional "  speaker,  had  they 
been  permitted  to  hear  and  know  first  Curtis  and 
then  Lowell.  It  is  a  pleasing  fancy,  but  it  is  not 
necessary  to  develop  it.  Mr.  Curtis  saw  his  "  civic 
duty  "  at  home,  and  felt  that  here  better  than  else 
where  he  could  do  what  was  worth  trying  to  do. 
He  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton  (May  28,  1877),  who 
had  sought  to  change  his  decision  :  — 

"  I  am  truly  obliged  to  you  for  your  letter.  I 
knew  it  would  be  hard  to  satisfy  (fortify  ?)  myself 
against  it,  but  I  have  done  so,  and  I  shall  show  you 
that  I  do  wisely  and  therefore  right  in  declining." 

And  in  July  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Lowell,  just  ap 
pointed  minister  to  Spain  :  — 

ASHFIELD,  July  9,  1877. 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  must  not  let  you  go  with- 
out  a  word  of  love  and  farewell,  although  I  have 
meant  to  write  you  a  letter.  I  told  Charles  that 
on  every  ground,  except  that  you  go  away,  I  am 
delighted  that  you  are  going.  With  me  the  case 
is  very  different.  I  happen  to  be  just  in  the  posi 
tion  where  I  can  be  of  infinitely  greater  service  to 
the  good  old  cause,  and  to  the  administration  that 
is  meaning  and  trying  to  advance  it,  than  I  could 
possibly  be  abroad.  Evarts  wrote  me  that  he  felt 
just  as  I  did  about  it.  But,  unless  there  was  some 
overpowering  private  reason,  you  could  not  escape 
going,  and  nothing  has  done  this  administration 


256  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

more  good,  nor  rejoiced  so  many  hearts,~as  your  ap« 
pointment.  You  will  be  blown  on  to  your  castles 
in  Spain  by  a  whirlwind  of  benedictions. 

Anna  sends  her  love,  and  I  beg  my  most  friendly 
remembrance  to  your  wife,  and  I  am  always  most 
Affectionately  yours, 

G.  W.  C. 

Mr.  Curtis  recognized  the  sincere  purpose  of  the 
President  to  do  all  that  he  could  to  raise  the  level 
of  the  civil  service,  and  with  it  the  level  of  Ameri 
can  politics.  A  new  Civil  Service  Commission 
was  appointed,  with  Mr.  Dorman  B.  Eaton  at  its 
head ;  and  the  rules  formulated  under  Mr.  Curtis 
were  applied  with  a  measure  of  thoroughness  at 
Washington,  especially  in  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  under  the  Hon.  Carl  Schurz,  in  the  cus 
tom-house  in  New  York,  and  in  the  post-office, 
then  placed  in  charge  of  Hon.  Thomas  L.  James. 
Mr.  Curtis  rejoiced  at  these  evidences  of  progress 
in  the  reform,  and  warmly  supported  Mr.  Hayes. 
The  President  needed  support.  He  had  deeply 
offended  the  Kepublican  leaders,  who  had  been 
in  practically  unrestrained  power  under  President 
Grant,  by  the  very  policy  which  won  for  him  the 
confidence  and  respect  of  Mr.  Curtis.  He  had 
made  a  definite  stand,  which,  if  it  was  not  abso 
lutely  unyielding,  was,  in  all  the  circumstances,  a 
very  firm  and  honorable  one,  against  the  spoils 
system,  and  necessarily  against  the  claims  of  the 
Senators,  whose  political  influence  was  almost 


THE  PARTING   OF   THE    WAYS.  257 

wholly  due  to  their  control  of  the  distribution  of 
the  spoils.  Chief  among  these  was  Senator  Roscoe 
Conkling,  of  New  York,  with  whom,  as  the  politi 
cal  leader  in  his  own  State,  Mr.  Curtis  had  been 
intimately,  though  by  no  means  always  amicably, 
related.  At  the  approach  of  the  fall  election, 
Mr.  Curtis  was  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  State 
Convention,  which  was  in  the  control  of  the  Conk- 
ling  faction.  He  supported  in  the  convention  a 
resolution  approving  the  course  of  the  administra 
tion,  and  particularly  its  course  with  reference  to 
the  civil  service.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
most  ordinary  political  sagacity,  the  resolution  was 
not  only  just  but  proper.  To  refuse  to  adopt  it 
was  to  discredit  the  party  in  the  approaching  con 
test,  and  to  commit  the  most  unpardonable  sin  in 
the  partisan  decalogue,  —  that  of  placing  a  weapon 
in  the  hands  of  "  the  enemy."  Had  the  resolution 
been  untruthful,  had  it  approved  efforts  at  reform 
that  had  never  been  made,  and  "  recognized  "  a 
virtue  in  the  national  administration  that  did  not 
exist,  it  would  have  encountered  no  opposition  from 
the  Conkling  side.  As  it  was,  Mr.  Conkling  not 
only  opposed  it,  but  he  indulged  in  a  curiously 
bitter  and  vulgar  attack  on  Mr.  Curtis  personally. 
Replying  to  a  note  from  Mr.  Norton,  regarding 
this  incident,  Mr.  Curtis  wrote  :  — 

ASHFIELD,  30th  September,  77. 

MY  DEAREST  CHARLES,  —  Your  note  is  here, 
and  it  is  lucky  that  you  are  not,  for  I  should  do  no 


258  GEORGE   WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

work.  It  was  the  saddest  sight  I  ever  knew,  that 
man  glaring  at  me  in  a  fury  of  hate,  and  storming 
out  his  foolish  blackguardism.  I  was  all  pity.  I 
had  not  thought  him  great,  but  I  had  not  suspected 
how  small  he  was.  His  friends,  the  best,  were  con 
founded.  One  of  them  said  to  me  next  day,  "  It 
was  not  amazement  that  I  felt,  but  consternation." 
I  spoke  offhand,  and  the  report  is  horrible.  The 
agent  of  the  Associated  Press  came  to  me  and 
apologized.  Conkling's  speech  was  carefully  writ 
ten  out,  and  therefore  you  do  not  get  all  the  venom, 
and  no  one  can  imagine  the  Mephistophelean  leer 
and  spite.  I  have  many  letters.  Oh  dear!  how 
much  I  prefer  these  quiet  hills,  and  how  I  am 
driven  out  on  the  stormy  seas  ! 

Mr.  Curtis  was  indeed  constantly  "  driven  out  on 
the  stormy  seas,"  but  the  force  that  drove  him  was 
from  within,  not  from  without.  He  went  where 
there  was  danger  to  the  cause  of  good  government, 
following  Sidney's  exhortation  to  a  younger  bro 
ther:  "Whenever  you  hear  of  a  good  war,  go  to 
it."  I  quote  here  some  passages  from  his  address 
in  this  same  year  to  the  students  of  Union  College 
on  "  The  Public  Duty  of  Educated  Men."  They 
will  show  by  what  principles  he  believed  himself 
to  be  guided,  and  will  throw  light  on  his  subsequent 
course  :  — 

"  By  the  words  '  public  duty '  I  do  not  necessarily 
mean  official  duty,  though  it  may  include  that.  I 
mean  simply  that  constant  and  active  practical  par- 


THE  PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS.      259 

ticipation  in  the  details  of  politics  without  which, 
upon  the  part  of  the  most  intelligent  citizens,  the 
conduct  of  public  affairs  falls  under  the  control  of 
selfish  and  ignorant  or  crafty  and  venal  men.  I 
mean  that  personal  attention  which,  as  it  must  be 
incessant,  is  often  wearisome  and  even  repulsive,  to 
the  details  of  politics  —  attendance  upon  meetings, 
service  upon  committees,  care  and  trouble  and  ex 
pense  of  many  kinds,  patient  endurance  of  rebuffs, 
chagrins,  ridicules,  disappointment^  defeats  ;  in  a 
word,  all  those  duties  and  services  which,  when  self 
ishly  and  meanly  performed,  stigmatize  a  man  as  a 
mere  politician,  but  whose  constant,  honorable,  in 
telligent,  and  vigilant  performance  is  the  gradual 
building,  stone  by  stone  and  layer  by  layer,  of  that 
great  temple  of  self-restrained  liberty  which  all 
generous  souls  mean  that  our  government  shall 
be.  ... 

"  Undoubtedly  a  practical  and  active  interest  in 
politics  will  lead  you  to  party  association  and  coop 
eration.  Great  public  results  —  the  repeal  of  the 
corn  laws  in  England,  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
America  —  are  due  to  that  organization  of  effort, 
that  concentration  of  aim,  which  arouse,  instruct, 
and  inspire  the  popular  heart  and  will.  This  is 
the  spring  of  party,  and  those  who  seek  practical 
results  instinctively  turn  to  this  agency  of  united 
action.  But  in  this  tendency,  useful  in  the  state 
as  the  fire  upon  the  household  hearth,  lurks,  as  in 
that  fire,  the  deadliest  peril.  Here  is  our  re 
public  :  it  is  a  ship,  with  towering  canvas  spread, 


260  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

sweeping  before  a  prosperous  gale  over  a  foaming 
and  sparkling  sea ;  it  is  a  lightning  train  darting 
with  awful  speed  along  the  edges  of  dizzy  abysses 
and  across  bridges  that  quiver  over  unsounded 
gulfs.  Because  we  are  Americans  we  have  no 
peculiar  charm,  no  magic  spell,  to  stay  the  eternal 
laws.  Our  safety  lies  alone  in  cool  self-possession, 
directing  the  forces  of  wind  and  wave  and  fire.  If 
once  the  madness  to  which  the  excitement  tends 
escapes  control,  the  catastrophe  is  inevitable.  And 
so  deep  is  the  conviction  that  sooner  or  later  this 
madness  must  seize  every  republic,  that  the  most 
plausible  suspicion  of  the  permanence  of  the  Amer 
ican  government  is  founded  in  the  belief  that  party 
spirit  cannot  be  restrained.  It  is,  indeed,  a  master 
passion,  but  its  control  is  the  true  conservatism  of 
the  republic,  and  of  happy  human  progress  ;  and 
it  is  men  made  familiar  by  education  with  the 
history  of  its  ghastly  catastrophes,  men  with  the 
proud  courage  of  independence,  who  are  to  temper, 
by  lofty  action  born  of  that  knowledge,  the  fero 
city  of  party  spirit. 

"This  spirit  adds  moral  coercion  to  sophistry. 
It  denounces  as  a  traitor  him  who  protests  against 
party  tyranny,  and  it  makes  unflinching  adherence 
to  what  is  called  regular  party  action  the  condition 
of  the  gratification  of  honorable  political  ambition. 
Because  a  man  who  sympathizes  with  the  party 
aims  refuses  to  vote  for  a  thief,  this  spirit  scorns 
him  as  a  '  rat '  and  a  renegade.  Because  he  holds 
to  principle  and  law  against  party  expediency  and 


THE  PARTING    OF   THE    WAYS.  261 

dictation,  he  is  proclaimed  as  the  betrayer  of  his 
country,  justice,  and  humanity.  Because  he  tran 
quilly  insists  upon  deciding  for  himself  when  he 
must  dissent  from  his  party,  he  is  reviled  as  a  pop 
injay  and  a  visionary  fool.  Seeking  with  honest 
purpose  only  the  welfare  of  his  country,  the  hot  air 
around  him  teems  with  the  cry  of  the  4  grand  old 
party,'  '  the  traditions  of  the  party,'  4  loyalty  to  the 
party,'  4  future  of  the  party,'  '  servant  of  the  party ; ' 
and  he  sees  and  hears  the  gorged  and  portly  money 
changers  in  the  temple  usurping  the  very  divinity 
of  the  God.  Young  hearts  !  be  not  dismayed.  If 
ever  one  of  you  shall  be  the  man  so  denounced,  do 
not  forget  that  your  own  individual  convictions  are 
the  whip  of  small  cords  which  God  has  put  into 
your  hands  to  expel  the  blasphemers." 

Mr.  Curtis  was  approaching  the  parting  of  the 
ways.  There  was  no  doubt,  when  the  time  came,  as 
to  what  guide  he  would  follow. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

POLITICAL   INDEPENDENCE. 

ON  the  17th  of  October,  1877,  Mr.  Curtia 
delivered  the  oration  at  Schuylerville,  Saratoga 
County,  New  York,  on  the  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne.  As  he  said :  "  The 
drama  of  the  Revolution  opened  in  New  England, 
culminated  in  New  York,  and  closed  in  Virginia." 
It  was  the  culmination  that  was  celebrated  on  the 
battle-field  where,  for  the  first  time  in  the  long  and 
fluctuating  struggle,  the  American  forces  met  and 
defeated  in  the  open  field  the  disciplined  army  of  a 
brave  and  capable  English  commander.  The  story 
of  the  battle,  and  of  the  events  that  led  up  to  it,  is 
julmirably  told  in  Mr.  Curtis's  oration.  I  cite  the 
closing  passages,  as  giving  the  spirit  in  which  Mr. 
Curtis  was  wont  to  apply  to  the  present  the  les 
sons  of  the  past :  — 

"  It  is  the  story  of  a  hundred  years  ago.  It 
has  been  ceaselessly  told  by  sire  to  son  along  this 
valley  and  through  this  land.  The  later  attempt 
of  the  same  foe,  and  the  bright  day  of  victory  at 
Plattsburg,  renewed  and  confirmed  the  old  hostil 
ity.  Alienation  of  feeling  between  the  parent 
country  and  the  child  became  traditional,  and  on 


POLITICAL   INDEPENDENCE.  263 

both  sides  of  the  sea  a  narrow  prejudice  survives, 
and  still  sometimes  seeks  to  kindle  the  embers  of 
that  wasted  fire.  But  here  and  now  we  stand 
upon  the  grave  of  old  enmities.  Hostile  breast 
work  and  redoubt  are  softly  hidden  under  grass 
and  grain  ;  shot  and  shell  and  every  deadly  missile 
are  long  since  buried  beneath  our  feet ;  and  from 
the  mouldering  dust  of  mingled  foemen  springs  all 
the  verdure  that  makes  this  scene  so  fair.  While 
nature  tenderly  and  swiftly  repairs  the  ravages  of 
war,  we  suffer  no  hostility  to  linger  in  our  hearts. 
Two  months  ago  the  British  Governor-General  of 
Canada  was  invited  to  meet  the  President  of  the 
United  States  at  Bennington,  in  happy  commem 
oration,  not  of  a  British  defeat,  but  of  a  triumph  of 
English  liberty.  So,  upon  this  famous  and  deci 
sive  field,  let  every  unworthy  feeling  perish !  Here 
to  the  England  that  we  fought  let  us  now,  grown 
great  and  strong  with  a  hundred  years,  hold  out 
the  hand  of  fellowship  and  peace.  Here,  where 
the  English  Burgoyne,  in  the  very  moment  of  his 
bitter  humiliation,  generously  pledged  George 
Washington,  let  us,  in  our  high  hour  of  triumph, 
of  power,  of  hope,  pledge  the  Queen  !  Here  in  the 
grave  of  brave  and  unknown  foemen  may  mutual 
jealousies  and  doubts  and  animosities  lie  buried 
forever  !  Henceforth,  revering  their  common  glo 
rious  traditions,  may  England  and  America  press 
always  forward  side  by  side  in  noble  and  aspiring 
rivalry  to  promote  the  welfare  of  man ! 

"Fellow-citizens,  with  the  glory  of  Burgoyne's 


264  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

surrender,  the  Kevolutionary  glory  of  the  State  of 
New  York  still  fresh  in  our  memories,  amid  these 
thousands  of  her  sons  and  daughters  whose  hearts 
glow  with  lofty  pride,  I  am  glad  that  the  hallowed 
spot  on  which  we  stand  compels  us  to  remember 
not  only  the  imperial  State,  but  the  national  com 
monwealth  whose  young  hands  here  together  struck 
the  blow,  and  on  whose  older  head  descends  the 
ample  benediction  of  the  victory.  On  yonder 
height,  a  hundred  years  ago,  Virginia  lay  encamped. 
Beyond,  and  further  to  the  north,  watched  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont.  Here  in  the  wooded 
uplands  of  the  south  stood  New  Jersey  and  New 
York  ;  while  across  the  river  to  the  east,  Connecti 
cut  and  Massachusetts  closed  the  triumphal  line. 
Here  was  the  symbol  of  the  Revolution,  a  common 
cause,  a  common  strife,  a  common  triumph ;  the 
cause,  not  of  a  class,  but  of  human  nature :  the 
triumph,  not  of  a  colony,  but  of  United  America. 
And  we  who  stand  here  proudly  remembering,  we 
who  have  seen  Virginia  and  New  York  —  the 
North  and  the  South  —  more  bitterly  hostile  than 
the  armies  whose  battles  shook  this  ground,  we 
who  have  mutually  proved  in  deadlier  conflict  the 
constancy  and  the  courage  of  all  the  States,  which, 
proud  to  be  peers,  yet  own  no  master  but  their 
united  selves,  —  we  renew  our  hearts  in  imperish 
able  devotion  to  the  common  American  faith,  the 
common  American  pride,  the  common  American 
glory !  Here  Americans  stood  and  triumphed. 
Here  Americans  stand  and  bless  their  memory. 


POLITICAL    INDEPENDENCE.  265 

And  here,  for  a  thousand  years,  may  grateful  gen 
erations  of  Americans  come  to  rehearse  the  glo 
rious  story,  and  to  rejoice  in  a  supreme  and  benig 
nant  American  nationality  !  " 

When,  in  the  summer  of  1878,  at  the  age  of  four 
score  years  and  four,  William  Cullen  Byrant  died, 
Mr.  Curtis  was  invited  by  the  New  York  Histori 
cal  Society  to  deliver  a  commemorative  address, 
which  he  did  on  December  30  before  an  assem 
bly  of  very  unusual  distinction,  including  the 
President,  Mr.  Hayes,  and  members  of  his  Cabi 
net.  The  address  is  in  curious  harmony  with  the 
subject  and  the  author,  and,  with  the  exception  of 
that  on  Lowell,  is  perhaps  the  most  notable  of  the 
series  delivered  by  Mr.  Curtis.  Its  spirit  is  pecu 
liarly  calm,  and  its  style  quiet,  sustained,  and  of 
rare  purity  and  simplicity.  I  think  that  it  re 
mains  the  most  satisfactory  tribute  to  the  noble 
and  gifted  and  yet  not  popular  character  of  Mr. 
Bryant.  It  gives,  moreover,  very  interesting  in 
dications  of  the  scholar's  nature  in  Mr.  Curtis. 
"  Undoubtedly,"  he  says,  "  the  grandeur  and  so 
lemnity  of  Wordsworth,  as  Bryant  told  Dana,  had 
stirred  his  soul  with  sympathy.  But  not  the  false 
simplicity  that  sometimes  betrays  Wordsworth, 
nor  the  lurid  melodrama  of  Byron,  nor  the  aerial 
fervor  of  Shelley,  nor  the  luxuriant  beauty  of 
Keats,  — •  in  whose  line  the  Greek  marble  is  some 
times  suffused  with  a  splendor  of  Venetian  color, 
—  nor  in  his  later  years  the  felicity  and  richness 
of  Tennyson,  who  has  revealed  the  flexibility  and 


266  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

picturesqueness  of  the  English  language  in  lines 
which  a  line  of  Keats  describes,  — 

"  '  Like  lucent  sirups  tinct  with  cinnamon,'  — 

not  all  these  varying  and  entrancing  strains,  which 
captivated  the  public  of  the  hour,  touched  in  the 
least  the  verse  of  Bryant.  His  last  considerable 
poem,  '  The  Flood  of  Years,'  but  echoes  in  its  med 
itative  flow  the  solemn  cadences  of  fc  Thanatopsis.' 
The  child  was  father  of  the  man.  The  genius 
of  Bryant,  not  profuse  and  imperial,  neither  in 
tense  with  dramatic  passion  nor  throbbing  with  lyr 
ical  fervor,  but  calm,  meditative,  pure,  has  its  true 
symbol  among  his  native  hills,  a  mountain  spring 
untainted  by  mineral  or  slime  of  earth  or  reptile 
venom,  cool,  limpid,  and  serene.  His  verse  is  the 
virile  expression  of  the  healthy  communion  of  a 
strong,  sound  man  with  the  familiar  aspects  of 
nature,  and  its  broad,  clear,  open-air  quality  has  a 
certain  Homeric  suggestiveness." 

It  was,  however,  Bryant  the  editor,  the  stead 
fast  and  faithful  worker  in  the  field  where  right 
opinion  is  cultivated,  that  elicited  from  Mr.  Curtis 
the  most  eloquent  tribute.  "It  is  the  lesson  of 
this  editorial  life  that  public  service  the  most  re 
splendent  and  the  most  justly  renowned  on  sea  or 
shore,  in  Cabinet  or  Congress,  however  great, 
however  beneficent,  is  not  a  truer  service  than  that 
of  the  private  citizen  like  Bryant,  who  for  half 
a  century,  with  conscience  and  knowledge,  with 
power  and  unquailing  courage,  did  his  part  in 
holding  the  hand  and  heart  of  his  country  true  to 


POLITICAL     INDEPENDENCE.  267 

her  now  glorious  ideal."  And  again,  in  still  more 
emphatic  strain  :  — 

"  It  is  by  no  official  title,  by  no  mere  literary 
fame,  by  no  signal  or  single  service  or  work,  no 
marvelous  Lear  or  Transfiguration,  no  stroke  of 
statecraft  calling  to  political  life  a  new  world  to 
redress  the  balance  of  the  old,  no  resounding  Aus- 
terlitz  or  triumphant  Trafalgar,  that  Bryant  is 
commemorated.  There  may  have  been,  in  his  long 
lifetime,  genius  more  affluent  and  creative,  greater 
renown,  abilities  more  commanding,  careers  more 
dazzling  and  romantic,  but  110  man,  no  American, 
living  or  dead,  has  more  truly  or  amply  illustrated 
the  scope  and  the  fidelity  of  republican  citizen 
ship." 

If  in  these  brief  quotations  I  seem  to  have 
traced  in  Mr.  Curtis's  portrait  of  Bryant  some  of 
the  features  of  Mr.  Curtis's  character,  it  is  because 
of  the  sympathy  of  aim  that  inspired  both.  It  is 
not  seldom  that  the  literary  artist,  like  the  artist 
in  portraiture,  reveals  himself  in  what  he  sees  in 
his  subject. 

Shortly  after  the  delivery  of  this  address,  Mr. 
Curtis  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton  (January  11,  1879):  — 

"  I  think  my  view  of  Bryant  is  not  unjust,  per 
haps  a  generous  one,  but  true  to  the  chief  aspects 
of  the  man.  The  occasion  was  magnificent,  for  it 
was  unquestionably  the  most  distinguished  audi 
ence  ever  assembled  in  New  York.  The  Presi 
dent  accepted,  he  said,  solely  to  honor  me,  and 
Evarts  impressed  the  same  truth  upon  me.  After 


268  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

his  return  the  President  wrote  me  a  warm  little 
note,  offering  me  the  German  mission.  I  was 
touched,  for  I  saw  his  wish ;  but  I  told  him  that  I 
had  carefully  considered  the  whole  subject  on  a 
former  occasion,  and,  not  without  some  surrender 
of  hopes  and  ambitions,  I  had  decided  that  it  was 
not  wise  for  me  to  change  the  order  of  my  life. 
I  had  had  no  misgivings  and  had  none  now. 

"  It  does  not  seem  to  me  at  fifty-five  probable 
that  I  shall  greatly  vary  the  order  of  that  life  here 
after." 

The  "  order  of  his  life  "  was,  indeed,  not  to  be 
changed,  but  the  principle  that  directed  it  was  to 
lead  him  into  new  and  constantly  more  trying 
contests.  In  the  following  year,  the  Republican 
party  in  the  State  of  New  York  nominated  for 
governor  Mr.  Alonzo  B.  Cornell,  a  former  promi 
nent  office-holder  in  the  Federal  service,  an  ac 
tive  manager  of  the  party  machinery  based  on  the 
distribution  of  the  patronage,  and  a  conspicuous 
representative  of  the  group  of  politicians  who  had 
set  themselves  again  to  nominate  General  Grant 
for  the  Presidency  in  1880,  and  to  renew  that 
domination  of  the  "  spoils  system  "  which  had  fol 
lowed  the  breakdown  of  the  first  attempt  at  civil 
service  reform.  The  nomination  was  accomplished 
by  the  extreme  methods  of  party  manipulation  that 
go  with  the  spoils  idea,  and  aroused  an  intense  and 
indignant  opposition  in  the  Republican  party,  which 
took  the  form  of  refusal  to  vote  for  the  candidate 
for  governor  while  voting  for  other  candidates,  — • 


POLITICAL    INDEPENDENCE.  269 

in  the  technical  language  of  politics,  "  scratching  " 
the  name  of  Mr.  Cornell.  An  organization  was 
formed  under  the  title  of  "  Independent  Republi- 
cans,"  commonly  referred  to,  however,  as  "  Scratch- 
ers,"  to  promote  this  plan  of  protest.  It  was  so 
far  successful  that  twenty  thousand  adherents  were 
enrolled  throughout  the  State.  Mr.  Cornell  was 
elected  by  the  opposition  of  Tammany  Hall,  in 
New  York  city,  to  the  Democratic  candidate,  but 
the  influence  of  the  independent  movement  was 
very  great  and  lasting. 

"  Among  the  mortally  wounded,"  wrote  Mr. 
Curtis,  November  6,  "  is  Conkling.  Everybody 
here  feels  that  it  is  he  who  has  '  engineered  '  the 
ridiculous  result  of  a  Republican  governor  elected 
by  Tammany  Hall  in  pursuance  of  a  plan  to  show 
that  New  York  will  be  a  Republican  State  next 
year.  Tilden  goes  with  him,  and,  it  seems  to  me, 
Sherman  likewise.  Evarts  was,  like  Disraeli,  un 
speakable." 

The  organization  of  Independent  Republicans, 
with  this  distinct  moral  advantage  to  their  credit, 
was  continued  for  the  presidential  year  1880.  It 
was  plain  that  they  held  the  "  balance  of  power  " 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  might  easily  de 
cide  not  merely  the  Republican  candidacy,  but  the 
Presidency.  On  May  20,  1880,  Mr.  Curtis,  who 
had  warmly  supported  the  movement,  addressed 
the  organization  at  a  crowded  meeting  in  Chicker- 
ing  Hall. 

"  I  accepted  your   invitation,"  he  said,   "  with 


270  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

great  pleasure,  as  that  of  Republicans  who  know 
that  the  Republican  party  was  founded  in  freedom 
and  for  freedom,  and  who  are  resolved  to  keep 
yourselves  free.  Your  action  last  autumn,  as  citi 
zens  interested  in  politics,  but  without  personal  or 
mercenary  ends,  determined  not  to  sacrifice  party 
principles  to  party  organization,  and  quietly  hold 
ing  your  ground  against  every  form  of  ridicule  and 
hostility,  was  a  public  service  deserving  the  public 
gratitude,  and  full  of  good  augury  for  the  future. 
You  were  told  that  you  were  voting  in  the  air,  but 
you  knew  that  such  air-guns  as  yours  had  done 
great  execution  ;  and  if  your  twenty  thousand  airy 
shots  were  noiseless,  they  hit  the  mark  at  which 
they  were  aimed.  The  man  who  is  proud  never  to 
have  voted  anything  but  the  whole  regular  party 
ticket  shows  the  servility  of  soul  that  makes  despo 
tism  possible. 

"  It  is  true  that  party  action  becomes  impossi 
ble  if  every  member  insists  upon  having  his  own 
way.  There  must  be,  undoubtedly,  general  con 
cession  and  sacrifice  of  mere  personal  preference, 
but  every  member  must  decide  for  himself  how  far 
this  may  go  and  where  it  must  end.  No  Republi 
can  has  a  right  to  appeal  to  me  as  a  Republican  to 
stand  by  the  party  who  does  not  do  what  he  can 
to  make  the  party  worth  standing  by.  A  party  is 
made  efficient  only  through  men.  It  is  necessarily 
judged  by  its  candidates ;  and  if  its  members  sup 
port  unworthy  candidates  to-day  for  the  sake  of 
the  party,  they  make  it  all  the  easier  to  support 


POLITICAL    INDEPENDENCE.  271 

unworthier  candidates  to-morrow.  If  I  agree  to 
vote  for  Jeremy  Diddler  to-day  because  he  is  the 
regularly  selected  standard-bearer  of  the  grand  old 
party  of  honesty  and  reform,  I  cannot  refuse  to 
vote  for  Benedict  Arnold  to-morrow  because  he  is 
the  standard-bearer  of  the  grand  old  party  of  inde 
pendence  and  political  glory.  If  the  reply  be  that 
no  one  pretends  that  we  ought  to  vote  for  can 
didates  of  bad  character,  I  answer  that  a  candi 
date  who  for  any  reason  discredits  the  party,  and 
thereby  imperils  its  success  and  consequently  its 
object,  is,  from  the  party  point  of  view,  a  bad 
man,  and  fidelity  to  the  party  demands  the  rejec 
tion  of  the  candidate." 

The  address  had  for  its  subject  "  Machine  Poli 
tics  and  the  Remedy."  Mr.  Curtis's  conception  of 
machine  politics  was  party  management  based  on 
the  spoils  of  office.  His  remedy  was  for  the  in 
dividual  voter's  "  scratching  "  machine  candidates  ; 
but  the  general  and  thorough  and  lasting  remedy 
was  the  reform  of  the  civil  service,  and  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  use  of  the  offices  as  spoils.  More  and 
more  this  idea  was  forced  upon  him  as  the  one  of 
chiefest  and  most  urgent  importance  in  the  public 
affairs  of  the  nation. 

The  movement  to  nominate  General  Grant  for  a 
third  term  was  led  by  Senator  Conkling,  the  gen 
eral  having  become  a  resident  of  New  York.  It 
was  strongly  resisted  in  that  State  and  finally 
failed,  General  James  A.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  receiv 
ing  the  Republican  nomination,  and  General  W.  S. 


272  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

Hancock  that  of  the  Democrats.  Garfield  was 
elected,  and  the  civil  service  reformers,  as  well  as 
the  advocates  of  a  more  liberal  tariff,  took  heart  of 
hope. 

The  President  was  undoubtedly  in  sympathy  with 
the  idea  of  both  classes.  In  his  long  congressional 
experience  he  had  learned  the  evils  of  the  spoils 
system,  and  had  denounced  them  often  in  a  manner 
at  once  emphatic  and  intelligent.  He  had,  how 
ever,  shown  neither  the  firmness  nor  the  courage 
essential  to  carry  out  an  effectual  reform  by  the 
use  of  the  executive  authority,  adequate  as  that 
would  have  been  in  the  hands  of  a  determined  and 
independent  President.  The  reformers,  however, 
found  an  unexpected  ally  in  Senator  George  H. 
Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  who  introduced  a  radical 
though  ill-digested  bill  in  Congress.  Mr.  Pendle 
ton  was  a  Democrat,  of  very  pronounced  party 
feeling,  and  had  immediately  after  the  war  been 
associated  with  the  extreme  wing  of  his  party,  espe 
cially  on  financial  questions.  But  he  was  a  man  of 
culture,  of  personal  probity,  of  considerable  ability, 
and  his  accession  to  the  cause  of  the  reform  was 
valuable.  In  1880  the  "  New  York  Civil  Service 
Reform  Association  "  was  formed,  taking  the  place 
of  one  that  had  dissolved  early  in  the  administra 
tion  of  Mr.  Hayes,  and  Mr.  Curtis  was  elected  its 
president,  a  post  which  he  held  until  his  death. 
The  first  work  of  the  new  association  was  directed 
toward  legislation,  and  the  bill  of  Mr.  Pendleton 
was  taken  as  the  basis.  Little  progress  was  made, 


POLITICAL    INDEPENDENCE.  273 

however,  at  Washington,  though  kindred  associa 
tions  were  formed  in  various  parts  of  the  country, 
until,  in  the  summer  of  1881,  the  murderous  assault 
upon  President  Garfield  by  a  half-insane  office- 
seeker  startled  the  country  to  an  alarmed  sense  of 
what  the  envenomed  struggle  for  place  might  at  any 
time  involve.  In  August  the  National  Civil  Ser 
vice  Eeform  League  was  formed  at  Newport,  R.  I. 
"  Of  the  league,"  says  Mr.  William  Potts,  who  be 
came  its  secretary,  and  whose  intelligent  and  untir 
ing  labors  in  that  office  were  of  the  greatest  value, 
"  Mr.  Curtis  was  the  inevitable  president  by  com 
mon  consent,  and  none  who  heard  his  words  at  the 
close  of  the  meeting  then  doubted  more  than  he 

>,^^ 

the  end  of  the  work  thus  entered  upon  :  '  We  have 
laid  our  hands  on  the  barbaric  palace  of  patronage, 
and  begun  to  write  on  its  walls  Mene,  mene ! 
Nor,  I  believe,  will  the  work  end  till  they  are  laid 
in  the  dust.' " 

The  assassination  of  President  Garfield  in  1881 
aroused  a  powerful  public  sentiment  against  the 
spoils  system,  for  the  assassin  was  recognized  as 
an  abnormal  and  yet  logical  product  of  that  sys 
tem.  Craving  for  spoils,  and  hatred  of  the  man 
who  failed  to  satisfy  it,  were  the  immediate  motives 
of  his  disordered  mind.  Mr.  Chester  A.  Arthur, 
who  as  Vice-President  succeeded  to  the  duties  of 
the  President's  office,  brought  the  subject  of  reform 
to  the  attention  of  Congress,  and  "  urgently  recom 
mended  "  an  appropriation  of  $25,000  to  renew  the 
work  of  the  United  States  Civil  Service  Commis- 


274  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

sion  which  had  been  dropped  in  1873.  Congress 
was,  however,  as  yet  deaf  to  the  voice  of  public 
opinion,  and  only  $15,000  was  granted,  and  that 
on  the  motion  of  an  opposition  member. 

The  refusal  of  President  Garfield  to  "  recognize  " 
the  senators  from  New  York,  in  the  distribution  of 
Federal  patronage  in  that  State,  had  resulted  in  a 
violent  and  open  quarrel  in  the  Republican  party 
in  New  York.  The  resignation  of  Mr.  Elaine  as 
secretary  of  state  had  greatly  embittered  the  fac 
tion  led  by  the  senators.  When,  in  the  fall  of 
1882,  Mr.  Charles  J.  Folger,  then  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  had  been  nominated  for  governor  by  the 
Republican  party,  he  encountered  determined  oppo 
sition.  For  the  most  part  this  was  probably  fac 
tional.  The  leaders  in  the  State  who  took  part  in 
it,  and  who  were  in  close  relations  with  Mr.  Elaine, 
were  politicians  of  much  the  same  character  and 
methods  as  those  who  secured  the  nomination  of 
Mr.  Folger.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was 
a  profound  sentiment  of  disapproval  and  disgust 
among  those  who  saw  in  the  nomination  an  instance 
of  the  control  of  party  action  by  the  federal  admin 
istration  through  the  abuse  of  the  offices.  This 
sentiment  was  strong  among  the  Independent  Re 
publicans,  or  "  Scratchers,"  whose  movement  three 
years  previously  had  elicited  the  hearty  support  of 
Mr.  Curtis,  and  he  was  in  complete  sympathy  with 
them  still.  When  the  nomination  was  made,  he 
was  at  his  country  home  in  Ashfield.  By  one  of 
those  curious  blunders  to  which  editorial  offices 


POLITICAL    INDEPENDENCE.  275 

are  liable  in  the  absence  of  the  responsible  head, 
an  article  by  Mr.  Curtis  was  modified  to  commit 
the  paper  to  the  support  of  the  candidate.  On  the 
27th  of  September  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Norton :  — 

"  MY  DEAREST  CHARLES,  —  I  have  resigned 
the  editorship  of  '  Harper's  Weekly.'  My  article 
upon  Folger's  nomination,  despite  my  request,  was 
perverted  and  made  to  misrepresent  my  views, 
and  to  make  me  absolutely  ridiculous.  The  blow 
to  me  and  to  the  good  cause  is  very  great  and 
not  exactly  retrievable.  To-day  I  am  thought  by 
every  reader  of  the  paper  to  be  a  futile  fool.  The 
thing  is  so  atrocious  as  to  be  comical." 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  trace  the  source  of  the 
unfortunate  mistake.  It  was  promptly  and  in  the 
most  manly  manner  disavowed  by  the  house  of 
Harper  &  Bros.  Mr.  Curtis  published  a  letter 
setting  himself  right  with  those  who  had  been  as 
tonished  at  the  appearance  of  the  article,  and  with 
drew  his  resignation.  The  accidental  interruption 
of  the  relations  of  publishers  and  editor,  which  had 
been  maintained  so  honorably  on  both  sides  for 
nearly  twenty  years,  had  no  effect  but  to  strengthen 
mutual  confidence  and  respect. 

In  the  election  of  1882  the  Democratic  candi 
date,  Grover  Cleveland,  was  elected  by  a  majority 
of  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  votes,  and  this 
was  accompanied  by  severe  checks  and  reverses  for 
the  Republicans  in  other  States.  The  first  effect 
of  these  checks  and  reverses  was  to  awaken  in  the 
representatives  of  the  Republican  party  at  Wash- 


276  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

ington  an  entirely  new  conception  of  what  civil 
service  reform  was,  and  of  popular  opinion  regard 
ing  it  —  and  themselves.  The  Pendleton  bill  was 
referred  to  a  committee  of  which  Senator  Hawley, 
of  Connecticut,  was  chairman,  and  under  his  zealous 
and  intelligent  guidance,  assisted  by  representa 
tives  of  the  National  League,  the  bill  was  steadily 
pressed.  It  received  the  signature  of  President 
Arthur  on  the  16th  of  January,  1883,  and  went 
into  final  operation  on  the  16th  of  July,  after  which 
date  no  appointment  to  the  civil  service  was  legal 
unless  made  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
law  —  that  is,  in  compliance  with  the  rules  promul 
gated  by  the  authority  of  the  law,  unless  expressly 
exempted  from  them.  The  system  adopted  was  in 
substance  the  same  as  that  framed  by  the  commis 
sion  of  which*  Mr.  Curtis  was  chairman  in  1871. 
It  aimed  gradually  to  apply  the  principle  of  ap 
pointments  for  fitness  attested  by  competition  and 
probation.  The  essential  control  of  the  President 
as  the  chief  appointing  officer  of  the  government 
was  recognized.  A  commission  was  to  frame  the 
rules  which,  when  he  approved  them,  he  was  to 
promulgate,  and  which  the  commission  was  then  to 
administer.  The  law  expressly  forbade  contribu 
tions  for  political  purposes  by  any  person  in  the 
service  to  be  paid  to  any  person  in  the  service,  and 
prohibited  all  solicitation  of  such  contributions 
within  the  government  offices.  The  rules  were  to 
apply  to  the  departmental  service  at  Washington 
above  the  grade  of  laborers,  and  below  appoint- 


POLITICAL    INDEPENDENCE.  277 

ments  made  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate,  with  certain  exceptions,  and  they  were  to 
apply  also  to  any  federal  officer  outside  of  Wash 
ington  having  fifty  or  more  employees.  The  heads 
of  departments  were  required  to  classify  the  em 
ployees  under  them  within  six  months,  and  thus 
the  part  of  the  service  to  which  the  rules  apply 
came  to  be  generally  designated  as  the  "  classified 
service."  Examinations  were  to  be  held  under  the 
direction  of  the  commission,  and  those  attaining 
in  these  examinations  a  certain  minimum  standard 
were  placed  on  an  eligible  list  in  the  order  of  their 
standing  for  each  department  or  office.  When  a 
vacancy  occurred,  the  three  names  highest  on  the 
list  were  to  be  certified  to  the  appointing  officer, 
who  chose  the  appointee  from  these.  There  was 
also  provision  for  promotion  by  competition. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  rules,  honestly  and  intel 
ligently  administered,  practically  excluded  politics 
from  the  service  wherever  they  applied.  The  power 
of  removal  from  office  was  left  untouched,  and  dis 
missals  for  party  reasons  were  not  prohibited.  It 
was  expected,  however,  by  the  friends  and'  authors 
of  the  law,  that  such  dismissals  would  gradually 
cease  as  the  temptation  to  make  them  was  destroyed. 
The  history  of  the  service  shows  that  removals  from 
office  are  almost  uniformly  made  for  one  of  two  pur 
poses, —  either  to  punish  refusal  of  political  as 
sessments,  or  to  make  room  for  party  appointments. 
The  law  and  the  rules  forbade  the  former,  and 
made  the  latter  extremely  difficult.  The  system 


278  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

as  a  whole  was  sound  in  principle,  and  capable  of 
great  good,  but  it  was  far  from  radical.  It  was 
set  in  operation  by  President  Arthur  in  good  faith, 
under  a  commission  of  which  Mr.  Dorman  B.  Eaton 
was  the  most  active  member,  bringing  to  it  a 
thorough  study  of  the  work  and  marked  ability 
with  untiring  zeal.  The  provisions  made  by  law 
for  the  operation  of  the  reform  were,  however, 
ludicrously  and  shamefully  inadequate,  and  repre 
sented  the  half -concealed  hostility  of  the  legislators 
toward  it.  The  appropriation  barely  covered  the 
small  salaries  of  the  commission,  traveling  expenses, 
and  office  expenses.  The  examinations  had  to  be 
made  by  clerks  detailed  from  the  service,  who  re 
ceived  no  pay  for  their  work,  which  was  added  to 
their  regular  duties.  But  it  was  the  happy  quality 
of  the  reform  to  excite  the  most  generous  devotion  in 
all  honest  persons  who  had  to  do  with  it,  and  it  im 
mediately  entered  upon  a  career  of  practical  success 
that  has  steadily  gained  with  every  passing  year. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE   CANVASS   OF   1884. 

"  THE  party  issues  of  the  last  few  years  are  grad 
ually  disappearing.  The  perilous  questions  of  fun 
damental  policy  have  been  determined,  and  the 
paramount  interests  of  the  country  are  now  those 
of  administration.  Honesty  and  efficiency  of  ad 
ministration  of  the  settled  national  policy  will  now 
be  the  chief  demand  of  every  party."  These  were 
the  words  which,  in  the  closing  months  of  1871, 
Mr.  Curtis  had  addressed  to  President  Grant  in 
submitting  his  report  on  the  reform  of  the  civil  ser 
vice.  Their  general  prediction  was  sound.  It  had 
not  come  about  that  "  every  party  "  had  demanded 
"  honesty  and  efficiency  of  administration,"  for  the 
demands  of  parties  are  often  framed  by  men  curi 
ously  ignorant  either  of  the  general  requirements 
of  public  opinion,  or  of  the  requirements  of  that 
body  of  voters  who  are  bound  by  no  party,  and  who 
from  time  to  time  dismiss  one  and  call  another  to 
the  control  of  the  government.  But,  during  the 
thirteen  years  that  had  passed  since  Mr.  Curtis  had 
defined  the  situation  in  the  words  above  quoted, 
there  had  beyond  any  doubt  grown  up  in  the  coun 
try  a  sentiment  steadily  stronger  and  more  definite 


280  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

that  "honesty  and  efficiency  of  administration" 
was  the  imperative  and  dominant  need  of  the  time. 
The  year  1884  was  to  see  the  Republican  party, 
after  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  unbroken 
possession  of  the  presidential  office,  displaced  in 
obedience  to  this  sentiment. 

The  presidential  contest  of  1876  may  be  said  to 
be  the  last  in  which  the  Republican  party  had 
made  its  stand  almost  exclusively  on  the  issues 
growing  out  of  the  war.  Mr.  Hayes,  on  taking 
office,  had  made,  if  not  a  formal,  an  unmistakable 
proclamation  that  these  questions  could  never  again 
be  controlling.  He  had  withdrawn  the  Federal 
hand  from  the  States  of  Louisiana  and  South 
Carolina,  and  he  had  invited  a  Southern  man  to  a 
prominent  place  in  his  Cabinet.  During  his  term 
of  office  he  made  every  effort,  with  the  approval  of 
a  large  number  of  his  party  leaders,  to  expel  the 
"  Southern  question  "  from  politics,  and  his  efforts 
won  general  sympathy  among  the  people.  In  the 
canvass  of  1880,  Mr.  Garfield,  though  he  was  a 
veteran  of  the  War  for  the  Union,  was  opposed  by 
General  Hancock,  a  much  more  conspicuous  Union 
veteran;  and  the  chief  issue  of  the  contest,  so 
far  as  national  policy  was  involved,  was  the  tariff. 
Mr.  Arthur,  to  whom  by  the  death  of  the  Presi 
dent  it  fell  to  send  the  first  message  to  the  Con 
gress  elected  in  1880,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  transmitted  one  in  which 
no  question  arising  out  of  the  war  received  any 
serious  comment.  The  "  gradual "  disappearance 


THE   CANVASS   OF  188$.  281 

of  the  party  questions  to  which  Mr.  Curtis   had 
alluded  in  1871  was  now  completed. 

By  the  ordinary  course  of  political  development, 
the  issue  of  1884  should  have  been  the  tariff,  on 
which  parties,  had  been  most  clearly  divided  four 
years  before,  and  on  which  the  policy  of  the  oppo 
sition  had  been  most  definitely  shaped.  And 
though,  by  the  tariff  act  of  1883,  a  certain  measure 
of  reduction  in  protective  duties  had  been  made,  in 
pursuance  of  recommendations  far  more  advanced 
by  the  commission  of  1882,  a  majority  of  whom 
were  of  the  Protectionist  party,  it  is  probable  that 
the  tariff  would  have  been  the  controlling  question 
had  the  party  in  power  nominated  almost  any  of 
its  prominent  leaders  other  than  Mr.  James  G. 
Blaine.  That  nomination  made  the  decisive  fact 
in  the  canvass  the  opinion  of  the  country  as  to  the 
personal  character  of  the  candidate,  and  this  opin 
ion  on  the  whole  was  adverse.  The  decisive  fact 
was  not,  of  course,  the  only  one,  nor,  in  a  sense, 
was  it  the  chief  one.  The  great  body  of  each  party 
was  doubtless  guided  by  that  powerful  and  complex 
and  not  clearly  defined  force  which  we  know  as 
party  feeling,  and  was  not  seriously  affected  by  the 
known  or  inferred  character  of  either  candidate. 
And  there  was  a  certain  influence  exerted  indepen 
dent  of  party  association  by  other  causes,  such  as 
the  race  sentiment  elicited  among  voters  of  Irish 
birth  or  descent  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Blaine,  and  the 
counteracting  influence  of  the  religious  sentiment 
aroused  by  the  fact  that  the  Catholic  priesthood^ 

OF 


282  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

was  reported  —  on  no  specific  evidence  -  ^  to  be  en. 
listed  in  his  behalf.  Again,  there  was  the  effect 
of  the  association  of  a  considerable  number  of  men 
formerly  active  in  the  Democratic  party  with  the 
highly  protected  interests  dependent  on  the  tariff. 
But  the  outcome  of  the  forces  on  either  side  was 
so  nearly  equal  to  that  of  those  on  the  other  side, 
that  it  remains  probable  that,  had  the  question 
of  Mr.  Elaine's  character  been  eliminated  from 
the  canvass,  the  decision  would  have  been  in  his 
favor. 

But  this  decisive  element  was  not  a  simple  one. 
If  Mr.  Blame  failed  in  the  election  because  of  the 
adverse  opinion  of  a  considerable  body  of  voters 
as  to  his  character,  it  was  because  the  defects  at 
tributed  to  him  were  of  public  interest  and  not  of 
a  private  nature,  and  he  was  regarded  as  a  repre 
sentative  of  a  class  whose  power  it  was  right  and 
necessary  to  curb.  The  particular  fault  that  his 
opponents  dwelt  most  upon  was  the  use  of  public 
office  for  private  advantage,  and  there  was  a  deep- 
seated  conviction  that  that  was  the  most  serious, 
general,  and  threatening  evil  of  the  times.  Mr. 
Curtis,  in  an  address  on  Staten  Island  on  the  Cen 
tennial  Anniversary  of  Independence,  eight  years 
previously,  had  invited  his  fellow-citizens  to  this 
pledge  :  "  That  we  will  try  public  and  private  men 
by  precisely  the  same  moral  standard,  and  that 
no  man  who  directly  or  indirectly  connives  at  cor 
ruption  or  coercion  to  acquire  office  or  retain  it, 
or  who  prostitutes  any  opportunity  or  position  of 


THE   CANVASS   OF  188$.  283 

public  service  to  his  own  or  another's  advantage, 
shall  have  our  countenance  or  our  vote."  There 
was  evidence,  which  many  of  Mr.  Elaine's  fellow 
Republicans  found  conclusive,  that  in  one  distinct 
instance  he  had  been  willing  to  prostitute  an  op 
portunity  and  position  of  public  service  to  his  own 
advantage,  and  there  was  nothing  in  his  public 
career  to  contradict  the  inference.  There  was 
much  to  confirm  it.  He  had  been  in  public  life 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  had  attained  a  po 
sition  of  great  influence  and  power  in  his  party. 
His  ability  as  a  political  leader  was  eminent,  while 
his  popularity  was  probably  more  extended  than 
that  of  any  man  since  Clay.  But  his  rare  gifts 
and  great  power  had  certainly  not  been  devoted  to 
promoting  the  purity  or  raising  the  general  level 
of  public  life  or  of  party  action.  He  was  inti 
mately  identified,  on  the  contrary,  with  the  ten 
dency,  so  obvious  since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War, 
in  the  opposite  direction.  Republicans  who  had 
faithfully,  unselfishly,  and  from  the  sincerest  con 
viction,  labored  to  construct  and  maintain  their 
party  because  it  was  to  them  the  best  instrument  for 
promoting  the  best  interests  of  the  country,  sought 
in  vain  in  Mr.  Elaine's  record  the  evidence  that 
his  real  aims  were  theirs,  and  reluctantly  came  to 
regard  him  as  the  typical  opponent  of  those  aims. 
He  had  shown  no  efficient  sympathy  with  the  re 
form  movement  which  sought  to  exclude  party 
politics  from  the  public  service.  On  the  contrary 
he  owed  very  much  of  his  power  in  his  own  party 


284  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

to  the  unscrupulous  use  of  offices,  and  the  violent 
disruption  of  his  party  in  the  State  of  New  York 
in  1882  had  been  promoted  by  his  friends  largely 
because  of  resentment  at  their  failure  to  receive 
the  share  they  wished  in  patronage. 

There  was  another  phase  of  Mr.  Blame's  career 
which  bore  upon  his  willingness  to  prostitute  the 
opportunities  of  public  service  to  his  own  advan 
tage,  and  which  furnished  evidence  not  so  clear 
and  conclusive,  but  indicating  even  more  danger 
ous  proclivities.  He  had  long  been  recognized  as 
the  leader  of  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  a  "  vigor 
ous  "  foreign  policy,  and  that  recognition  was  a 
potent  element  in  the  gratification  of  his  ambition. 
During  the  brief  time  that  he  had  been  in  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Garfield,  he  had  shown  what 
was  his  conception  of  a  vigorous  foreign  policy. 
He  had  in  two  cases  undertaken  to  impose  the 
influence  of  the  United  States  government  upon 
a  friendly  foreign  government  —  once  upon  Chili 
and  once  upon  Mexico  —  in  a  manner  unwarranted 
by  international  law,  and  opposed  to  the  tradi 
tional  impartiality  of  our  policy  in  dealing  with 
other  nations.  In  both  instances  his  failure  had 
been  complete  and  humiliating.  In  one  he  had  in 
curred  serious  peril  of  a  quarrel ;  in  the  other  he 
had  been  subjected  to  contemptuous  neglect.  His 
course  had  produced  a  profound  feeling  of  distrust 
among  intelligent  and  conservative  observers,  who 
saw  in  it  a  reckless  attempt  to  cultivate  a  dan- 
gerous  popularity  at  the  cost  of  the  interests  and 
honor  of  his  country. 


THE   CANVASS   OF  1884.  285 

On  the  anniversary  of  Washington's  birthday 
in  1884,  a  dinner  was  given  by  the  Young  Men's 
Republican  Club  of  Brooklyn,  a  very  powerful 
and  intelligent  organization  with  a  large  number 
of  very  independent  members,  —  at  which  a  num 
ber  of  leading  men  spoke,  all  of  them  urging 
strongly  the  need  of  the  Republican  party  for  a 
candidate  of  sound  character.  Mr.  Curtis  did  not 
attend  the  dinner,  but  wrote  a  letter  in  full  sym 
pathy  with  the  speakers.  On  the  24th  of  Febru 
ary  a  conference  of  Republicans  was  held  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  at  which  Mr.  Curtis  was  pres 
ent,  with  Republicans  from  many  parts  of  the 
country,  and  particularly  from  New  England,  at 
which  a  resolution  was  adopted  declaring  the  im 
perative  necessity  of  Republican  candidates  who 
would  "  warrant  confidence  in  their  readiness  to 
defend  the  advance  already  made  toward  divor 
cing  the  public  service  from  party  politics,  and  to 
continue  these  advances  till  the  separation  has 
been  made  final  and  complete."  An  organization 
was  formed  to  promote  the  purpose  of  the  confer 
ence  and  an  "  Independent  Republican  Commit 
tee  "  named,  of  which  General  Francis  C.  Barlow 
was  president,  and  Mr.  Joseph  W.  Harper  treas 
urer. 

The  Republican  National  Convention  was  held 
early  in  June  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  where, 
twenty-four  years  before,  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  first  suc 
cessful  candidate  of  the  Republican  party,  had  been 
nominated.  Mr.  Curtis  was  chosen  as  a  delegate 


286  GEORGE    WILLIAM  QURTIS. 

from  the  county  of  Kichmond  (Staten  Island), 
where  he  resided.  His  first  choice,  like  that  of 
most  of  the  Republicans  who  were  in  sympathy 
with  him,  for  the  nomination,  was  Senator  George 
F.  Edmunds,  of  Vermont,  a  man  of  high  character 
and  great  ability,  who  had  up  to  that  time  given 
many  evidences  of  his  independence  of  party  dic 
tation.  When  the  convention  met,  it  was  apparent 
that  it  was  unevenly  divided  between  the  support 
ers  of  Elaine,  Arthur,  and  Edmunds,  the  first- 
named  having  the  greatest  number,  but  not  a 
majority  of  the  convention.  The  very  unusual  sit 
uation  and  the  condition  of  party  sentiment  were 
recognized  when,  on  the  4th  of  June,  before  the 
convention  had  decided  to  proceed  to  vote  for 
nominees,  a  resolution  was  introduced  declaring 
that  every  delegate  who  took  part  in  the  conven 
tion  was  "  bound  in  honor  to  support  the  nominee." 
Mr.  Curtis  promptly  protested  against  its  adoption. 
"  A  Republican  and  a  free  man,"  he  declared,  "  I 
came  to  this  convention,  and  by  the  grace  of  God 
a  Republican  and  a  free  man  will  I  go  out  of  it." 
The  resolution  was  finally  withdrawn. 

When  the  balloting  was  begun,  it  was  evident 
that  Mr.  Elaine  was  to  secure  the  nomination  un 
less  the  supporters  of  Arthur  and  Edmunds  could 
combine  upon  one  or  the  other  of  these  two.  Such 
a  combination  was  impossible.  The  two  men  rep 
resented  in  the  convention  totally  different  and 
opposite  ideas  of  the  question  which  had  divided 
the  party.  That  question  had  been  clearly  de- 


THE    CANT  ASS    OF  1884.  287 

fined  by  the  Independent  Eepublican  conference 
in  February.  It  was  the  divorce  of  the  public  ser 
vice  from  party  politics.  Mr.  Arthur,  though  he 
had  enforced  the  civil  service  law  within  the  nar 
row  limits  of  the  rules,  was  not  only  a  believer  in 
the  spoils  doctrine,  but  one  of  the  most  conspicu 
ous  and  experienced  and  least  scrupulous  of  the 
leaders  who  had  put  it  in  practice  and  profited  by 
doing  so.  He  owed  very  much  of  the  strength  he 
was  able  to  show  in  the  convention  to  the  use  of 
Federal  patronage.  He  had  won  a  certain  degree 
of  confidence  in  the  country  by  his  dignified  and 
conservative  management  of  foreign  affairs,  by  his 
liberal  views  as  to  the  tariff,  and  his  entire  sound 
ness  on  questions  of  finance ;  but  while,  as  to  these 
matters,  he  compared  favorably  with  Mr.  Elaine, 
none  of  them  was  of  controlling  importance.  The 
supporters  of  Mr.  Edmunds  could  not  give  their 
votes  to  him  without  openly  defeating  their  chief 
purpose.  His  supporters  could  not  give  their 
votes  to  Mr.  Edmunds  without  abandoning  the 
hopes  that  animated  most  of  them.  The  combina 
tion  could  not  be  made,  and  Mr.  Blaine  was  nomi 
nated.  The  usual  motion  was  offered  to  "  make 
the  nomination  unanimous,"  and  was  carried.  Mr. 
Curtis  did  not  vote  upon  it,  and  refused  the  urgent 
appeals  to  second  it.  He  remained  in  the  conven 
tion,  taking  part  in  the  subsequent  proceedings, 
until  its  close,  this  being  what  he  understood  to  be 
his  duty  as  a  representative. 

"Harper's   Weekly"  promptly  condemned  the 


288  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

action  of  the  Republican  Convention.  When  the 
Democratic  National  Convention  placed  in  nomina 
tion  Mr.  Cleveland,  then  governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  Mr.  Curtis,  after  careful  deliberation, 
decided  to  advocate  his  election.  He  was  immedi 
ately  recognized  as  the  representative  of  the  Re 
publican  defection.  With  Mr.  Carl  Schurz,  he 
took  the  leadership  of  that  movement ;  his  own 
position  differing  from  that  of  Mr.  Schurz  in  this, 
that,  while  their  view  of  the  duty  of  the  hour  was 
the  same,  Mr.  Schurz,  by  his  support  of  Horace 
Greeley  in  1872,  had  broken  that  association  with 
his  party  which  with  Mr.  Curtis  had  been  uninter 
rupted. 

Mr.  Curtis's  decision,  though  painful,  was  inev 
itable.  The  Republican  party  had,  in  his  sober 
judgment,  ceased  to  pursue  the  aims  which  he 
had  so  long  sought  through  it.  It  had  nominated 
a  candidate  whose  election  he  believed  would  de 
feat  those  aims.  The  course  of  the  party  had  been 
taken  in  opposition  to  every  possible  effort  on  his 
part  to  prevent  it.  He  had  labored  with  all  his 
energy  and  influence  to  convince  his  party  of  the 
error  and  danger  toward  which  it  was  tending. 
Nor  had  he  failed,  repeatedly,  definitely,  and  em 
phatically,  to  declare  the  principles  of  party  alle 
giance  by  which  he  had  consistently  been  guided. 
He  had  openly  advocated  Republican  effort  to  de 
feat  bad  Republican  candidates  in  his  own  State, 
in  Massachusetts,  in  Pennsylvania.  He  had  done 
so  avowedly  for  the  purpose  of  saving  the  party 


THE   CANVASS   OF  1884.  289 

from  the  control  of  those  who  made  bad  candidates 
possible;  and  he  had  never  concealed  his  convic 
tion  that,  if  this  purpose  failed  in  the  national  or 
ganization,  the  same  principle  would  demand  the 
same  action. 

He  wrote,  immediately  after  the  convention,  to  a 
very  old  friend  :  — 

June  10,  1884. 

MY  DEAR  S.,  —  I  am  very  sorry  indeed  that  our 
sense  of  duty  differs  so  widely.  I  cannot  urge  any 
body  to  support  for  the  presidency  a  man  who  has 
trafficked  in  his  official  place  for  his  private  gain, 
and  still  less  upon  the  ground  that  the  party  that 
nominated  him  is  a  better  party  than  the  other. 
There  would  never  be  any  better  party,  or  indeed 
any  party  but  that  to  which  we  belong,  if  every 
thing  that  it  did  and  everybody  that  it  nominated 
should  be  sustained  because  it  was  not  so  bad  as 
another  party.  I  did  not  support  Cornell  in  1879, 
because  of  his  ring  associations  and  methods.  I  did 
not  support  Folger  in  1882,  because  of  the  forgery 
and  fraud  which  secured  his  nomination.  But  I 
had  no  personal  objection  to  the  men.  It  is  not 
Elaine's  "  brilliancy,"  it  is  the  low  and  venal  sys 
tem  of  his  politics,  of  which  we  had  the  latest  and 
monstrous  evidence  at  Chicago,  that  shall  not  mas 
ter  the  Republican  party  if  I  can  help  it.  When 
the  only  argument  is  that  we  are  not  so  bad  as 
the  other  fellows,  it  is  time  to  call  a  halt. 

My  dear  boy,  I  should  be  recreant  to  my  con 
science,  and  I  should  bitterly  disappoint  all  those 


290  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

who  are  accustomed  to  look  to  me,  if,  after  all  that 
I  have  said  about  political  morality,  I  should  now 
support  for  the  presidency  the  one  man  who  is 
most  repugnant  to  the  political  conscience  of  young 
Republicans.  I  am  in  hearty  agreement  with  the 
Harpers,  who  are  unanimous  upon  the  point  that 
such  a  course  would  be  disastrous,  and  you  can 
hardly  imagine  how  deep  and  strong  the  feeling  of 
outrage  is. 

I  wish  with  all  my  heart  that  we  agreed  about 
the  matter,  and  with  all  the  old  affection  I  am  al 
ways  yours. 

Mr.  Curtis  felt  keenly  the  accusation  brought 
against  him  of  personal  bad  faith  in  taking  part  in 
a  convention  and  then  refusing  to  accept  its  can 
didate.  His  conscience  was  entirely  clear,  but  he 
knew  that  many  who  had  long  respected  and  trusted 
him  and  followed  his  leadership,  many  whom  he  be 
lieved  to  be  as  sincere  as  he  was  himself,  and  even 
some  old  and  cherished  friends,  thought  his  course 
dishonorable,  and  the  knowledge  was  exceedingly 
hard  to  bear.  Yet  it  is  clear  that  no  other  course 
was  open  to  him.  "  No  honorable  man,"  he  wrote 
in  an  open  letter  to  a  critic  of  his  action,  June  25, 
1884,  "  in  a  convention  or  out  of  it,  would  allow  a 
majority  to  bind  him  to  a  course  which  he  morally 
disapproved."  In  the  autumn  of  1885  he  wrote 
to  a  correspondent  who  had  raised  this  question  a 
letter  which  I  find  so  explicit  and  compact  that  I 
give  it  as  the  best  statement  of  his  view :  — 


THE   CANVASS   OF  1884.  291 

"  I  have  received  your  note,  and  have  time  only 
for  a  brief  reply.  The  action  of  a  convention 
is  merely  a  recommendation,  and  its  authority  is 
merely  that  of  a  majority.  Now,  a  majority  can 
not  morally  or  honorably  bind  a  participant  in  any 
consultation  to  support  its  action  if  he  morally 
disapproves  of  it.  The  fact  that  he  is  there  to  pre 
vent  such  action  is  certainly  not  a  reason  for  him 
to  support  it  if  taken,  because  that  conclusion 
would  make  the  man  who  actively  endeavors  to 
prevent  it  more  bound  by  it  than  one  who  stays  at 
home  and  takes  no  part.  As  a  delegate,  the  mem 
ber  of  a  convention  votes  and  does  his  delegated 
duty  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  Having  discharged 
that  special  duty,  his  general  duty  as  a  citizen  re 
curs,  and  he  is  to  weigh  the  action  of  the  conven 
tion  like  every  other  citizen,  and  vote  only  as  his 
conscience  directs. 

"  There  are  perhaps  five  millions  of  party  voters 
on  each  side ;  a  convention  is  composed  of  about 
800  members  of  the  party.  The  majority  would 
be  401 ;  and  to  say  that  the  remaining  399  who 
have  opposed  the  decision  are  honorably  bound  by 
it  if  they  conscientiously  disapprove,  while  all  the 
other  millions  and  thousands  of  members  are  not 
bound,  is  simply  folly." 

I  have  given  this  statement  of  Mr.  Curtis's  views 
%n  this  matter  because,  at  the  time  and  long  after, 
though  it  did  not  disturb,  it  saddened  him.  For 
my  own  part,  it  seems  to  me  to  have  given  occa 
sion  for  much  political  casuistry,  as  to  which  preju- 


292  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

dice  and  interest  and  unreflecting  sentiment  have 
wrought  confusion,  but  as  to  which  the  verdict  of 
justice  and  common  sense  is  beyond  all  mistake. 
If  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Curtis's  critics  were  to  pre 
vail,  self-respecting  men  would  not  act  as  delegates 
to  political  conventions,  and  party  rule  would 
rapidly  and  inevitably  become  corrupt.  The  in 
dependence  he  asserted  is  the  indispensable  con 
dition  precedent  to  rational  and  decent  politics. 
Unfortunately  human  nature  does  not  always  de 
velop  reason  or  decency  under  the  influence  of 
strenuous  party  passion.  Though  the  criticism  to 
which  I  have  referred  was  that  which  affected  Mr. 
Curtis  most,  it  was  by  no  means  all  he  had  to  bear. 
It  is  simply  impossible  to  give  any  idea  of  the 
abuse,  the  insult,  the  scurrility,  that  were  heaped 
upon  him  in  the  public  press,  and  in  letters,  usually 
anonymous,  addressed  to  him.  It  was  a  startling 
revelation  to  him  of  the  vulgarity  and  brutality  of 
a  large  number  of  the  men  with  whom  and  for 
whom  he  had  so  faithfully  and  unselfishly  labored. 
Necessarily  it  only  confirmed  him  in  the  course  he 
had  taken.  It  was  conclusive  proof,  if  any  were 
needed,  of  the  extent  to  which  the  evil  against 
which  he  had  revolted  had  spread  in  the  Republi 
can  party.  The  vile  spirit  shown,  because  an  hon 
orable  and  conscientious  leader  had  found  himself 
forced  into  opposition,  was  a  spirit  that  would  have 
been  no  less  vile,  and  infinitely  more  dangerous, 
had  he  submitted  to  the  party  dictation  and  the 
party  had  won.  Mr.  Curtis's  service  to  his  coun- 


THE   CANVASS   OF  1881*.  293 

try  while  he  acted  with  the  Kepublican  party  was 
in  my  judgment  very  great.  It  was  completed  and 
exceeded  by  the  service  he  rendered  when  he  left 
the  party,  and  pursued  through  another  party  the 
same  high  purpose. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE    LEADER    OF    REFORM. 

DURING  the  remaining  years  of  his  life,  Mr.  Cur- 
tis's  relation  to  public  affairs  was  strictly  that  of 
an  independent  critic,  and  his  chief  object  was  the 
promotion  of  civil  service  reform,  of  which  he  was 
now  the  acknowledged  leader  and  representative. 
In  "Harper's  Weekly,"  of  course,  his  criticism 
embraced  a  wide  field,  and  several  important  and 
interesting  questions  —  the  tariff,  the  currency, 
foreign  matters,  the  relation  of  the  President  to 
Congress,  which  came  up  within  this  period  —  re 
ceived  a  fair  share  of  attention,  and  were  discussed 
candidly,  and  in  the  main  intelligently.  But  none 
of  them  interested  him  as  did  the  reform.  To  the 
latter,  also,  he  devoted  a  great  deal  of  personal 
labor  and  study.  His  offices  as  president  of  the 
National  Civil  Service  Reform  League  and  of  the 
New  York  Civil  Service  Reform  Association  gave 
him  an  opportunity  for  effective  work  which  he 
embraced  with  the  utmost  ardor,  and  pursued  with 
unwearied  energy.  No  important  step  was  taken 
anywhere  without  his  approval,  and  very  much 
that  was  done  was  due  to  his  initiative.  His  cor 
respondence  was,  on  this  subject  alone,  enough  to 


THE  LEADER  OF  REFORM.        295 

tax  the  patience  and  strength  of  any  man,  but  it 
was  never  neglected  and  rarely  deferred.  His 
attendance  at  all  committees  was  faithful,  and  his 
part  in  their  work  a  marvel  of  patience,  vigilance, 
sound  judgment,  and  inspiring  zeal.  It  was  my 
fortune  to  be  associated  with  him  in  a  considerable 
part  of  these  labors,  mostly  in  those  of  a  relatively 
routine  nature,  conducted  quietly  and  with  none  of 
the  excitement  of  public  efforts.  He  early  made 
upon  me  the  impression  of  extraordinary  practical 
force.  He  was  devoid  of  the  vanity,  the  fussiness, 
the  obstinacy  and  narrowness,  that  are  so  unpleas 
antly  obvious  in  many  able  and  sincere  men  de 
voted  to  reform  movements.  With  great  single 
ness  of  purpose,  he  was  peculiarly  open-minded,  as 
eager  to  learn  as  to  teach,  as  ready  to  follow  as  to 
lead.  His  tact  was  unfailing,  because  it  was  the 
natural  expression  of  his  sympathetic  and  consider 
ate  nature.  No  one  who  came  into  active  relations 
with  him  in  this  peculiar  work  but  was  uncon 
sciously  encouraged  to  do  his  best.  Even  the 
bores  —  and  Heaven  knows  that  they  were  not 
wanting  —  forgot  to  betray  their  full  tediousness 
under  the  influence  of  his  gentle  and  firm  guid 
ance.  He  seemed  so  unaffectedly  to  expect  from 
every  one  the  fullest  measure  of  unselfish  and 
modest  service  that  it  was  impossible  to  refuse  it. 

The  reform  enlisted  many  able  men  from  differ 
ent  parts  of  the  Union.  The  lawyers  naturally 
were  the  most  numerous,  but  there  were  represent 
atives  of  all  professions  and  occupations,  many 


296  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

of  them  of  national  repute.  I  think  it  is  not  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Cur 
tis,  never  asserted  and  equally  never  concealed, 
was  universally  conceded.  This,  of  course,  was  in 
some  degree  due  to  the  fact  that  no  one  else  gave 
to  the  work  the  same  amount  of  time  and  study. 
In  his  own  mind,  I  should  say  that  it  was  the  op 
portunity  presented,  and  the  responsibility  imposed, 
by  this  leadership  that  chiefly  impressed  him,  and 
these  were  met  with  a  courage,  assiduity,  and  mi 
nute  and  constant  care,  such  as  few  men  give  save 
under  the  spur  of  interest  or  ambition. 

The  feature  of  greatest  public  interest  in  Mr. 
Curtis's  reform  work  was  his  annual  address  at  the 
meeting  of  the  National  League.  This  was  deliv 
ered  each  year  on  the  first  evening  of  the  two-day 
meeting,  and  consisted  primarily  of  a  review  of  the 
course  of  the  reform  for  the  year  just  closed,  a  state 
ment  of  what  remained  to  be  done,  indications  of 
the  next  steps  feasible,  and  always  included  an  argu 
ment  and  an  appeal  for  the  general  cause.  These 
addresses,  with  some  earlier  ones  and  Mr.  Curtis's 
report  as  chairman  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission 
made  to  President  Grant  in  1871,  form  the  second 
volume  of  the  "  Orations  and  Addresses "  pub 
lished  after  his  death.  This  volume  is  in  some  re 
spects  the  most  valuable  of  the  published  writings 
of  Mr.  Curtis.  In  it  will  be  found  the  substance 
of  what  he  had  to  say  on  the  phase  of  public  affairs 
that  engrossed  the  most  of  his  thought,  energy, 
and  time  during  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life. 


THE  LEADER  OF  REFORM.        297 

Here  is  his  explanation  of  what 'it  was  in  our  poli 
tics  that  needed  reform ;  of  what  the  consequences 
would  be  if  the  reform  were  not  brought  about ;  of 
what  would  be  the  immediate  and  the  progressive 
benefits,  should  the  reform  succeed,  of  the  general 
principles  and  the  specific  aims  and  methods  of  re 
form.  It  was  by  no  means  a  simple  or  narrow 
cause  in  which  he  had  enlisted.  Its  most  apparent 
scope  —  the  improvement  of  the  civil  service,  mak 
ing  it  efficient,  clean,  reasonably  economical,  and 
an  honorable  career  for  honorable  men  —  was  cer 
tainly  not  unimportant,  and  it  was  never  ignored 
or  underestimated  by  Mr.  Curtis,  who  in  this  as 
in  other  matters  was  sensible  and  practical.  But 
in  comparison  with  the  wider  and  ultimate  effect 
sought  upon  the  politics  of  the  country,  upon  its 
public  life,  the  character  of  the  government,  and 
the  public  conscience,  this  primary  effect  of  the 
reform  was,  in  his  mind,  subordinate  and  inciden 
tal.  Had  the  reform  been  confined  to  its  attain 
ment,  we  may  be  sure  that  he  would  have  given 
to  it,  as  he  did  to  numberless  movements  of  minor 
and  relatively  passing  interest,  a  cordial  advocacy 
proportioned  to  its  real  merit,  but  nothing  more. 
He  never  would  have  surrendered  to  it  the  days 
and  nights  of  steady  labor,  the  deep  and  anxious 
study,  the  patient  attention  to  detail,  that  ho  gave 
gladly  to  civil  service  reform.  Nor  could  it  have 
inspired  him  to  any  of  the  more  important  of  tfiese 
addresses,  which  are,  in  their  kind,  among  the 
best  that  remain  from  Mr.  Curtis,  and  among*  the 


398  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

best  that  the  history  of  political  life  in  the  United 
States  affords. 

The  struggle  for  reform  was  in  fact  to  Mr.  Cur 
tis,  as  I  have  already  suggested,  another  struggle 
for  popular  freedom,  for  the  assertion  of  the  na 
tional  conscience,  for  the  gradual  repression  and 
the  final  abolition  of  a  tyranny  not  differing  in  es 
sence  from  that  of  the  slave  power.  He  found  this 
tyranny  —  and  he  had  no  difficulty  in  demonstrating 
the  fact  —  as  unjust  and  as  debasing  within  its  limits 
as  the  one  that  fell  with  the  triumph  of  the  Union 
armies.  And  in  some  regards  it  was  more  danger 
ous,  because  less  obvious,  more  insidious  and  ob 
scure,  and  less  easily  arousing  the  indignant  revolt 
of  the  moral  sense  of  the  people.  It  was  the  con 
sciousness  of  this  truth  that  awakened  and  kept 
alive  in  him  for  so  many  years  that  fervent  and 
unflagging  zeal,  that  generous  and  firm  devotion,  of 
which  these  addresses  are  the  witness. 

Any  one  who  will  read  the  volume  will  not  fail 
to  be  impressed  by  the  development  of  Mr.  Curtis's 
conception  of  the  range  of  the  reform,  and  of  his 
manner  of  discussing  it.  The  substance  of  all  the 
chief  arguments  is,  indeed,  to  be  found  in  the  earli 
est  addresses,  and  in  the  report  to  President  Grant 
in  1871.  But  with  the  progress  of  the  reform, 
with  the  unfolding  of  the  way  in  which  it  impressed 
both  its  friends  and  its  foes,  with  the  changed  con 
ditions  of  politics  and  the  varying  policy  of  succes 
sive  administrations,  there  comes  a  very  striking 
extension  of  Mr.  Curtis's  treatment  of  the  subject. 


THE  LEADER  OF  REFORM.        299 

Probably  the  address  at  the  eleventh  annual  meet 
ing  of  the  National  League  in  Baltimore  in  1892,  in 
the  spring  of  the  year  in  which  he  died,  may  be  ac 
cepted  as  the  fullest  and  most  impressive  statement 
of  the  whole  matter.  I  am  not  aware  that  Mr.  Cur 
tis  had  at  that  time  any  serious  concern  as  to  his 
health ;  but  he  was  in  his  sixty-ninth  year,  he  had 
had  some  of  the  warnings  which  age  brings  of  the 
limit  of  human  energy  and  endurance.  Looking 
over  the  large  circle  of  his  associates,  many  of  them 
affectionate  friends,  all  of  them  admiring  and  trust 
ing  followers,  he  must  have  missed  some  who 
twenty  years  before  had  stood  by  his  side.  He  saw 
very  few  who  had  reached  his  age,  and,  I  think, 
none  that  had  given  to  the  cause  the  long  years  of 
wearing  labor  that  he  had  given.  Possibly  there 
was  a  half -recognized  sense  that  he  was  nearing 
the  end.  Assuredly  the  address  was  such  as  he 
might  have  made  had  he  known  that  it  was  the 
final  legacy  to  the  beloved  cause,  the  farewell 
words  of  instruction  and  guidance  and  inspiration. 
In  this  address  he  made  the  clearest  and  most 
complete  statement  of  the  underlying  principle  of 
the  reform.  When  he  came  to  publish  it,  he  gave 
it  the  title,  "  Party  and  Patronage."  Its  subject 
was  the  need  of  curbing  the  encroachment  of  ex 
ecutive  power  lodged  in  party  and  maintained  by 
patronage.  He  traced  the  resistance  of  the  Eng 
lish  Parliament  to  the  pretensions  of  the  royal  pre 
rogative,  and  the  resistance  of  the  colonies  to  the 
pretensions  of  the  English  Parliament,  and  he  de- 


300  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

scribed  the  action  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitu 
tion  with  the  purpose  of  limiting  the  use  of  the  ap 
pointing  power :  — 

"  The  people  had  assumed  their  own  government, 
but,  as  they  could  not  administer  it  directly,  it  was 
administered  by  agents  selected  by  party,  or  the 
organized  majority,  but  under  such  restrictions  as 
the  whole  body  of  the  voters,  or  the  people,  might 
impose.  The  crown  had  vanished.  There  was  no 
king  or  permanent  executive.  There  were  a  Presi 
dent  and  legislature  elected  by  the  people  for  lim 
ited  terms.  But  the  practical  agency  of  the  gov 
ernment  was  party,  and,  whoever  might  be  elected 
President,  party  remained  in  the  administration 
permanent  as  a  king,  and  with  the  same  control 
of  the  executive  power.  But  the  executive  power, 
whether  in  the  hands  of  a  king  or  party,  does  not 
change  its  nature.  It  seeks  its  own  aggrandize 
ment  and  cannot  safely  be  trusted.  Buckle  says 
that  no  man  is  wise  enough  and  strong  enough  to  be 
vested  with  absolute  authority.  It  fires  his  brain 
and  maddens  him.  But  this,  which  is  true  of  an 
individual,  is  not  less  true  of  an  aggregate  of  indi 
viduals  or  of  a  party.  A  party  or  a  majority  needs 
watching  as  much  as  a  king.  Indeed,  that  such 
distrust  is  the  safeguard  of  democracy  against  des 
potism  is  a  truth  as  old  as  Demosthenes.  Like  a 
sleuth-hound,  distrust  must  follow  executive  power, 
however  it  may  double  and  whatever  form  it  may 
assume.  It  is  as  much  the  safeguard  of  popular 
right  against  the  will  of  a  party  as  against  the  pre- 


THE  LEADER  OF  REFORM.        301 

rogative  of  a  king.  Distrust  is  in  fact  the  instinct 
of  enlightened  political  sagacity,  which  sees  that 
the  peril  of  popular  institutions  lies  in  the  abuse  of 
the  forms  of  popular  government.  The  great  com 
monplace  of  our  political  speech, 4  Eternal  vigilance 
is  the  price  of  liberty,'  is  fundamentally  true.  It 
is  a  scripture  essential  to  political  salvation.  The 
demand  for  civil  service  reform  is  the  cry  of  that 
eternal  vigilance  for  still  further  restriction  by  the 
people  of  the  delegated  executive  power. 

"  Civil  service  reform,  therefore,  is  but  another 
successive  step  in  the  development  of  liberty  un 
der  law.  It  is  not  eccentric  or  revolutionary.  It 
is  a  logical  measure  of  political  progress.  In  the 
light  of  a  larger  experience,  and  adjusted  to  the 
exigencies  of  a  republic  in  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury  instead  of  a  monarchy  in  the  thirteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  in  the  spirit  of  the  wise  jeal 
ousy  of  the  Constitution,  in  the  interest  of  free 
institutions  and  of  honest  government,  it  proposes 
still  further  to  restrict  the  executive  power  as  exer 
cised  by  party.  It  is  a  measure  based  upon  the 
observation  of  a  century,  during  which  government 
by  party  has  developed  conditions  and  tendencies 
and  perils  which  could  not  have  been  foreseen  in 
detail,  although,  at  the  beginning  of  party  govern 
ment  under  the  Constitution,  Washington  said  of 
party  spirit :  4  It  exists  under  different  shapes  in 
all  governments,  more  or  less  stifled,  controlled,  or 
repressed  ;  but  in  those  of  popular  form  it  is  seen  in 
its  greatest  rankness,  and  is  truly  their  worst  enemy.' 


302  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

"  What  our  fathers  could  not  guess,  we  can  see. 
Party,  which  is  properly  simply  the  organization  of 
citizens  who  agree  in  their  views  of  public  policy 
to  secure  the  enactment  of  their  views  in  law,  has 
become  what  is  well  called  a  machine,  which  con 
trols  the  political  action  of  millions  of  citizens  who 
vote  for  candidates  that  the  machine  selects,  and 
for  measures  that  the  machine  dictates  or  approves. 
Servility  to  party  takes  the  place  of  individual  in 
dependence  of  action.  So  completely  does  it  con 
sume  political  manhood,  that,  like  men  suddenly 
hurried  from  their  warm  beds  into  the  night  air, 
shivering  and  chattering  in  the  cold,  even  intelli 
gent  citizens  who  have  protested  against  their 
party  machine  as  fraudulent  and  false,  and  an  or 
ganized  misrepresentation  of  the  party  conviction 
and  will,  declare  that  if  their  protest  against  the 
power  of  fraud  and  corruption  does  not  avail,  and 
the  party  commands  them  to  yield,  they  will  bow 
the  head  and  bend  the  knee  in  loyalty  to  fraud  and 
corruption.  The  despotism  of  the  machine  is  so 
absolute,  and  the  triumph  of  the  party  so  supersedes 
the  reason  and  purpose  of  the  party,  that  we  have 
now  reached  a  point  in  our  political  development 
when,  upon  the  most  vital  and  pressing  public 
questions,  parties  do  not  even  know  their  own 
opinions,  and  factions  of  the  same  party  wrangle 
fiercely  to  determine  by  a  majority  what  the  party 
thinks  and  proposes.  Meanwhile,  so  completely 
has  the  conception  of  a  party  as  merely  a  conven 
ient  but  clumsy  agency  to  promote  certain  public  ol> 


THE    LEADER    OF    REFORM.  303 

jects  disappeared  that  one  of  the  chief  journals  of 
the  country  recently  remarked  with  entire  gravity 
that  it  found  '  no  fault  with  conscientious  independ 
ence  in  politics,'  which  was  like  announcing  with 
lofty  forbearance  that,  as  a  philosophic  moralist,  it 
found  no  fault  with  truth-telling  or  honest  dealing. 
"But  it  is  by  party  action,  nevertheless,  that 
reform  must  be  secured.  Why,  then,  do  we  an 
ticipate  success?  Because  party  itself  is  finally 
subject  to  public  opinion,  and,  whatever  the  ma 
chine  may  wish,  it  is  at  last  obliged  to  conform 
to  public  opinion,  as  a  sailing-ship  to  the  wind. 
Party  machines,  truculent  and  defiant,  resist,  but 
like  kings  they  yield  at  last  to,  the  people.  The 
king,  whose  arbitrary  excesses  produce  the  per 
emptory  popular  demand  for  relief,  ordains,  how 
ever  reluctantly,  a  restriction  that  limits  his  power. 
So  the  French  Bourbon,  Louis  XVIII.,  signed  the 
Charter  of  1814,  and  the  Prussian  Hohenzollern, 
Frederic  William  IV.,  summoned  the  Constituent 
Assembly  of  1848.  They  call  this  surrender  motu 
proprio,  an  act  of  their  sovereign  will.  But  they 
knew,  and  the  world  knows,  that  it  is  the  will  of  a 
greater  sovereign  than  they,  the  will  of  the  people. 
Our  appeal  is  now,  as  it  has  always  been,  not  to 
party,  but  to  the  people,  who  are  masters  of  party. 
As  the  English  barons,  in  the  phrase  of  an  old 
English  writer,  cut  the  claws  of  John  ,•  as  the 
English  Parliament  taught  terribly  the  English 
king  that  not  he,  but  the  English  people,  was  the 
sovereign ;  as  the  American  colonies  taught  the 


304  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

English  Parliament  in  turn  that  the  American 
people  would  rule  America,  —  so,  by  every  law  and 
custom  demanded  by  public  opinion*  which  re 
strains  the  arbitrary  abuse  of  executive  power  by 
party,  the  American  people  are  constantly  teaching 
American  parties  that  not  the  parties  but  the  peo 
ple  rule.  We  cannot  expect  the  king  nor  the 
Parliament  nor  the  party  to  solicit  the  lesson  or 
to  enjoy  the  discipline.  We  cannot  expect  their 
supple  courtiers,  either  in  the  palace  or  in  the 
saloon,  to  demand  that  the  king  or  the  party  shall 
be  bound.  But  bound  nevertheless  they  are,  bound 
by  the  people  they  have  been,  and  bound  by  the 
same  power  they  will  be.  The  record  of  this  year, 
as  of  the  last  year  and  of  every  year  since  the 
League  was  formed;  even  the  reiterated  pledges 
of  platforms,  although  reiterated  only  to  be  largely 
broken ;  the  most  sweet  voices  of  the  stump,  that 
sink  into  barren  silence ;  the  bills  introduced  that 
gasp  and  die  in  committee  on  the  one  hand,  and 
on  the  other  the  constantly  enlarged  scope  of  the 
reformed  system  in  the  public  service,  —  all  reveal 
the  ever-stronger  public  purpose,  and  the  con 
stantly  greater  achievement  of  that  purpose,  to 
add  in  civil  service  reform  another  golden  link  to 
the  shining  chain  of  historical  precedents  which, 
by  wisely  restraining  executive  power,  promote  the 
public  welfare." 

It  is  plain,  from  the  extracts  that  I  have  given 
not  only  from  his  later  speeches  but  from  others, 
that  the  standard  of  reform  with  Mr.  Curtis  was 


THE  LEADER  OF  REFORM.        305 

very  high,  —  that  he  regarded  it  as  of  national 
importance,  and  had  gradually,  after  his  service 
on  the  commission,  come  to  place  it  above  any  ob 
ject  professed  or  pursued  by  either  of  the  great 
parties.  During  the  eleven  years  that  he  presided 
over  the  National  Reform  League,  it  was  his  duty 
to  judge  the  party  in  power  by  this  standard. 
This  was  not  an  easy  task.  In  1884  he  spoke 
in  the  very  height  of  the  bitter  and  heated  contest 
for  the  presidency  between  the  party  he  had  re 
pudiated  and  the  one  to  which  he  had  brought 
his  support,  —  qualified,  indeed,  and  guarding  his 
perfect  independence,  but  requiring  the  imme 
diate  and  absolute  choice  between  the  candidate  of 
one  and  the  candidate  of  the  other.  From  1885 
to  1888  he  spoke  with  Mr.  Cleveland  in  the  Presi 
dent's  office,  and  was  obliged,  applying  to  the 
known  acts  of  the  administration  the  standard  he 
had  denned,  to  describe  wherein  the  administration 
fell  short,  and  how  far  the  President  for  whom  he 
had  voted  was  responsible  for  the  shortcomings. 
From  1889  to  1892  he  was  again  forced  to  survey 
the  course  of  his  old  party,  to  apply  to  it  with 
equal  sincerity  and  equal  fairness  the  same  search 
ing  tests.  It  will  be  seen  that  his  peculiar  and 
trying  function  was  exercised  during  each  of  two 
national  elections,  in  which,  as  an  editor  and  a 
leader  of  public  opinion,  he  took  an  active  and  in 
one  of  them  a  decisive  part,  and  each  of  which  was 
followed  by  a  change  in  the  party  in  possession  of 
the  presidency.  It  was  practically  impossible  that 


306  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

what  he  said  should  not  influence  party  action, 
nor  did  he  seek  to  avoid  such  an  effect.  It  was 
equally  impossible  that  he  should  escape  the  accu 
sation  of  partisan  prejudice  and  exaggeration,  how 
ever  anxious  he  was  not  to  give  either  justification 
or  excuse  for  such  accusation.  I  think  it  is  a  rea 
sonable  judgment  on  his  work  that  he  was  singu 
larly  fair,  not  only  in  intention,  but  in  the  labor, 
study,  reflection,  and  consultation  that  he  devoted 
to  ascertaining  the  facts,  and  to  determining  their 
real  significance  and  value.  I  thought  so  at  the 
time,  weighing  the  addresses  as  they  were  delivered 
from  year  to  year,  and  I  am  strongly  confirmed  in 
the  opinion  by  a  careful  review  of  them.  A  very 
significant  piece  of  evidence  upon  this  point  is  the 
fact  that,  among  the  active  workers  for  civil  service 
reform  who  were  intimately  associated  with  him  in 
the  league,  and  who  may  be  said  to  have  felt  a 
pretty  definite  though  indirect  responsibility  for 
his  utterances  while  their  association  with  him 
lasted,  were  a  number  of  ardent  and  convinced 
Republicans  and  equally  convinced  and  ardent 
Democrats,  and,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  none  of 
them  felt  called  upon  in  any  degree  to  free  them 
selves  from  that  responsibility.  Friends  and  advo 
cates  of  the  reform  who  were  supporters  of  Mr. 
Elaine,  and  who  condemned  unqualifiedly  Mr.  Cur- 
tis's  choice  in  1884,  found  his  speech  of  that  year 
without  any  fault  that  they  felt  themselves  re 
quired  to  point  out.  The  most  resolute  Democratic 
reformers  conceded  his  fairness  to  Mr.  Cleveland, 


THE  LEADER  OF  REFORM.        307 

The  most  —  I  cannot  say  enthusiastic,  for  I  do 
not  recall  any  —  but  the  most  friendly,  supporters 
of  Mr.  Harrison  were  ready  to  make  a  correspond 
ing  concession.  Abuse  there  was,  of  course,  from 
both  sides,  and  much  honest  and  sincere  but  igno 
rant  misconception.  But  the  men  who  followed 
Mr.  Curtis's  course  most  closely,  knew  it  most 
completely,  and  could  best  pass  upon  its  motives, 
were  entirely  satisfied  of  his  candor  and  loyalty. 


CHAPTEK   XXIII. 

THE   TYPICAL   INDEPENDENT. 

THE  year  1888  presented  to  those  who  had  re 
fused  to  support  the  Republican  candidate  four 
years  before,  and  had  given  their  votes  to  Mr. 
Cleveland,  the  not  wholly  simple  question  of 
whether  they  would  return  to  their  former  asso 
ciation.  The  message  of  President  Cleveland  in 
December,  1887,  devoted  chiefly  to  the  question  of 
taxation  forced  upon  the  country  by  the  enormous 
surplus  and  accumulation  of  revenue,  made  the 
tariff  the  chief  issue  of  the  presidential  campaign. 
The  failure  to  nominate  Mr.  Blaine  eliminated  his 
personal  character  as  an  obvious  and  unquestioned 
element  in  the  decision.  The  manifest  tendency 
of  a  very  large  part  of  the  Democratic  party  to 
wards  unsound  and  dangerous  financial  legislation, 
which  appeared  to  command  the  assent  of  a  ma 
jority  of  that  party  and  to  be  opposed  by  a  majority 
of  the  Republicans,  was  a  matter  not  lightly  to  be 
dismissed.  The  policy  of  Mr.  Cleveland  as  to  ad 
ministrative  reform  had  not  been  consistent,  and 
had  been  fairly  though  roughly  described  as  for 
reform  or  against  it,  according  as  the  reform  senti 
ment  did  or  did  not  control  the  decisive  vote  in  any 


THE   TYPICAL   INDEPENDENT.  309 

given  State.  In  these  circumstances  a  considerable 
number  of  the  Republicans,  who  with  Mr.  Curtis 
had  supported  Mr.  Cleveland  in  1884,  now  gave 
their  support  to  the  Republican  candidate,  Gen. 
Benjamin  Harrison.  Mr.  Curtis  decided  that  his 
duty  was  otherwise.  His  view  of  the  question  was 
explained  in  some  detail  in  a  letter  addressed  to  a 
correspondent  who  had  written  him  a  letter  of 
friendly  disapproval  and  criticism.  I  give  it,  in 
preference  to  any  public  utterance,  as  being  pecu 
liarly  characteristic :  — 

TO   A.    C.    TILDEN,    SAN   FRANCISCO. 

NEW  YORK,  12th  September,  1888. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you 
for  your  frank  and  friendly  letter  of  the  4th,  and  I 
am  very  glad  to  answer  it  in  the  same  spirit. 

My  strong  anti-slavery  feeling  made  me  a  Repub 
lican,  and  the  original  purpose  and  character  and 
membership  of  the  party  seem  to  me  to  have  been 
more  humane,  progressive,  and  truly  American  than 
that  of  any  other  party.  But  as  a  Republican,  after 
the  primary  purpose  of  the  party  had  been  attained 
by  the  result  of  the  war,  I  was  constantly  engaged  in 
withstanding  the  party  tendency  to  political  abuse 
and  corruption.  This  culminated  in  1884  by  the 
nomination  to  the  presidency  of  a  man  who,  in  my 
judgment,  had  trafficked  in  his  official  place  for  his 
personal  profit.  The  election  of  such  a  man  would 
have  been  disgraceful  to  the  party  and  dishonorable 
to  the  country,  and  this  consideration  was  para 
mount  to  all  others. 


310  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

I  therefore  supported  Mr.  Cleveland,  not  because 
I  had  renounced  my  Republican  principles,  but  be 
cause  I  held  to  them,  and  as  the  surest  way  of 
securing  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Blaine,  and  because  I 
believed  Mr.  Cleveland  to  be  an  honest  and  cour 
ageous  man  who  would  resist  any  mischievous  ten 
dency  of  his  party.  During  his  term  it  has  been 
evident  that  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Blaine  is  that  of  the 
Republican  party,  and  that  he  is  at  present  its  true 
representative.  Mr.  Cleveland  has  resisted  much 
in  his  party,  but  not  as  much  as  I  had  hoped. 
But  I  still  regard  him  as  honest  and  courageous. 
Now,  as  the  chief  issue  of  the  campaign  is  the 
method  of  reducing  the  revenue,  and  as  I  agree 
with  Mr.  Cleveland's  policy  and  look  upon  the  Re 
publican  policy  as  very  injurious,  and  as  I  see  that 
Mr.  Blaine  is  the  controlling  genius  of  his  party, 
and  that  a  vote  for  Mr.  Harrison  is  really  a  vote 
for  Mr.  Blaine,  the  same  principles  that  made  me 
vote  for  the  Republican  candidate  formerly  induce 
me  to  vote  for  Mr.  Cleveland  now. 

But  I  am  not  a  Democrat.  I  shall  vote  against 
Mr.  Hill,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor 
in  New  York,  and  I  think  Mr.  Cleveland  much 
better  than  his  party.  I  am  an  Independent,  and 
I  am  so  for  the  same  reasons  that  made  me  a  Re 
publican  formerly.  The  purposes  that  I  would 
promote  were  then  uniformly  to  be  served  by 
supporting  that  party.  But  all  the  circumstances 
are  changed,  and  now  I  can  serve  them  best  by 
voting  independently  of  party  names. 


THE   TYPICAL   INDEPENDENT.  311 

If  my  principles  had  been  changed  for  any  un 
worthy  purpose,  there  would  be  truly  a  shade  upon 
my  name.  But  they  are  the  same  now  that  they 
were  when  I  stumped  for  Fremont  in  '56,  and  sup 
ported  Lincoln,  the  greatest  of  modern  Americans, 
in  1860  and  '64.  In  the  sense  in  which  you  use 
the  words,  I  am  not  an  adherent  of  Mr.  Cleveland. 
I  have  been  disappointed  in  much  that  he  has  done, 
and  have  said  so  plainly  and  publicly.  I  think 
him  honest,  although  often  sophisticated,  and  in  the 
present  situation  support  him  as  the  better  alter 
native.  Should  Mr.  Harrison  be  elected,  I  should 
hope  to  be  equally  just  in  my  estimate  of  his  con 
duct. 

I  write  this  long  statement  because  I  should  be 
very  sorry  that  a  young  man,  who  from  what  he 
has  heard  of  me  is  inclined  to  wonder  regretfully 
at  my  course,  should  lack  any  explanation  which  I 
can  give  him. 

With  all  good  wishes,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 
GEOKGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

The  last  literary  work  of  Mr.  Curtis,  outside  of 
his  regular  tasks,  was  the  editing  of  "  The  Corre 
spondence  of  John  Lothrop  Motley."1  It  was  a 
work  of  much  labor  and  some  delicacy,  owing  to 
the  strong  feeling  aroused  in  Mr.  Motley  and  his 
friends  by  the  circumstances  of  his  resignation  of 
the  mission  to  Austria,  and  of  his  retirement  from 
1  New  York:  Harper  &  Bros.  2  vols.  1889. 


312  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

the  English  mission.  The  brief  statement  made 
by  Mr.  Curtis  in  the  preface  may  well  be  pondered 
by  editors  generally :  "  In  preparing  (the  letters) 
for  publication,  the  editor  has  withheld  whatever 
he  believed  that  the  writer's  good  judgment  and 
thoughtful  consideration  for  others  would  have 
omitted.  This  rule  excludes  comments  upon  per 
sons  and  affairs  which,  however  innocent  or  play 
ful,  might  cause  needless  pain  or  misapprehension. 
It  excludes,  also,  much  of  the  repetition  which  natu 
rally  occurs  in  such  letters,  and  a  large  part  of  the 
domestic  and  friendly  messages  and  allusions  which, 
although  illustrating  the  writer's  generous  sympa 
thy  and  affectionate  disposition,  are  essentially 
private.  If  much  of  such  matter  is  still  left,  it  is 
because,  with  all  his  interest  in  literary  pursuits 
and  in  public  affairs,  Mr.  Motley  was  essentially 
a  domestic  man,  and  a  more  rigid  exclusion  could 
not  have  been  made  without  injustice  to  his  char 
acter.  Otherwise  the  letters  are  printed  as  they 
were  written." 

The  last  public  address  of  Mr.  Curtis  was  that 
on  James  Russell  Lowell,  first  delivered  in  Brook 
lyn,  February  22, 1892,  and  repeated  in  New  York 
in  March.  In  it  he  said :  — 

"  Like  all  citizens  of  high  public  ideals,  Lowell 
was  inevitably  a  public  critic  and  censor,  but  he 
was  much  too  good  a  Yankee  not  to  comprehend 
the  practical  conditions  of  political  life  in  this 
country.  No  man  understood  better  than  he  such 
truth  as  lies  in  John  Morley's  remark :  4  Parties 


THE   TYPICAL   INDEPENDENT.  313 

are  a  field  where  action  is  a  long  second  best,  and 
where  the  choice  constantly  lies  between  two  blun 
ders.'  He  did  not  therefore  conclude  that  there  is  no 
alternative,  4  that  nought  is  everything  and  every 
thing  is  nought.'  But  he  did  see  closely  that,  while 
the  government  of  a  republic  must  be  a  government 
by  party,  yet  independence  of  party  is  much  more 
vitally  essential  in  a  republic  than  fidelity  to  party. 
Party  is  a  servant  of  the  people,  but  a  servant  who 
is  foolishly  permitted  by  his  master  to  assume  sov 
ereign  airs,  like  Christopher  Sly,  the  tinker,  whom 
the  lord's  attendants  obsequiously  salute  as  mas 
ter:— 

"  '  Look  how  thy  servants  do  attend  on  thee, 
Each  in  his  office  ready  at  thy  beck.' 

To  a  man  of  the  highest  public  spirit  like  Lowell, 
and  of  the  supreme  self-respect  which  always  keeps 
faith  with  itself,  no  spectacle  is  sadder  than  that 
of  intelligent,  superior,  honest  public  men  prostrat 
ing  themselves  before  a  party,  professing  what  they 
do  not  believe,  affecting  what  they  do  not  feel, 
from  abject  fear  of  an  invisible  fetich,  a  chimera,  a 
name,  to  which  they  alone  give  reality  and  force, 
as  the  terrified  peasant  himself  made  the  spectre 
of  the  Brocken  before  which  he  quailed. 

"  With  his  lofty  patriotism  and  his  extraordinary 
public  conscience,  Lowell  was  distinctively  the  In 
dependent  in  politics.  He  was  an  American  and  a 
republican  citizen.  He  acted  with  parties,  as  every 
citizen  must  act  if  he  actg  at  all.  But  the  notion 
that  a  voter  is  a  traitor  to  one  party  when  he  votes 


314  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

with  another  was  as  ludicrous  to  him  as  the  asser 
tion  that  it  is  treason  to  the  White  Star  Steamers 
to  take  passage  on  a  Cunarder.  When  he  would 
know  his  duty,  Lowell  turned  within,  not  without. 
He  listened,  not  for  the  roar  of  the  majority  in  the 
street,  but  for  the  still  small  voice  in  his  own 
breast.  For,  while  the  method  of  republican  gov 
ernment  is  party,  its  basis  is  individual  conscience 
and  common  sense.  This  entire  political  independ 
ence  Lowell  always  illustrated. 

"  Whatever  his  party  associations  and  political 
sympathies,  Lowell  was  at  heart  and  by  tempera 
ment  conservative,  and  his  patriotic  independence 
in  our  politics  is  the  quality  which  is  always  un 
consciously  recognized  as  the  true  conservative 
element  in  the  country.  In  the  tumultuous  excite 
ment  of  our  popular  elections,  the  real  appeal  on 
both  sides  is,  not  to  the  party,  which  is  already 
committed,  but  to  those  citizens  who  are  still  open 
to  reason,  and  may  yet  be  persuaded.  In  the  most 
recent  serious  party  appeal  the  orator  said  :  4  Above 
all  things,  political  fitness  should  lead  us  not  to  for 
get  that  at  the  end  of  our  plans  we  must  meet  face 
to  face  at  the  polls  the  voters  of  the  land,  with  bal 
lots  in  their  hands,  demanding  as  a  condition  of  the 
support  of  our  party,  fidelity  and  undivided  devotion 
to  the  cause  in  which  we  have  enlisted  them.  This 
recognizes  an  independent  tribunal  which  judges 
party.  It  implies  that,  besides  the  host  who  inarch 
under  the  party  color  and  vote  at  the  party  com 
mand,  there  are  citizens  who  may  or  may  not  wear 


THE   TYPICAL   INDEPENDENT.  315 

the  party  uniform,  but  who  vote  only  at  their  own 
individual  command,  and  who  give  the  victory. 
They  may  be  angrily  classified  as  political  Laodi- 
ceans ;  but  it  is  to  them  that  parties  appeal,  and 
rightly,  because,  except  for  this  body  of  citizens,  the 
despotism  of  party  would  be  absolute,  and  the  re 
public  would  degenerate  into  a  mere  oligarchy  of 
bosses." 

When,  in  the  letter  to  the  San  Francisco  corre 
spondent  above  cited,  Mr.  Curtis  wrote,  "  I  am  an 
Independent,"  it  was  the  standard  of  independence 
described  in  his  characterization  of  Lowell  that 
he  had  in  mind.  He  was  very  faithful  to  that 
standard,  and  the  trials  of  his  fidelity  were  more 
severe,  intimate,  and  lasting  than  those  of  Lowell. 
"  Literature,"  he  said  of  the  latter,  "  was  his  pur 
suit,  but  patriotism  was  his  passion."  Of  Curtis 
it  may  be  said  that  patriotism  was  both  his  passion 
and  his  pursuit,  to  which  literature  was  constantly 
and  with  no  small  sacrifice,  nor  without  pangs  of 
reluctance,  but  constantly,  subordinated.  He  was 
not  only  for  thirty  years  a  political  journalist,  but 
he  was  a  political  speaker,  and  an  active  partici 
pant  in  party  effort.  While  his  devotion  to  the 
purposes  of  the  Republican  party  was  the  main 
spring  of  his  work  in  and  for  that  party,  his  long 
years  of  unremitting  and  systematic  activity  in  it 
wove  about  him  numberless  strong  ties  of  sym 
pathy,  association,  and  memory.  These  were  not 
easily  severed  nor  severed  without  pain.  He  was 
the  most  conspicuous  instance  of  his  time  of  the 


316  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

Independent  who,  without  hope  of  reward  or  gain 
and  at  such  a  cost,  followed  the  orders  of  his  con 
science.  This,  as  I  have  said,  I  regard  as  his 
greatest  service  to  his  country,  and  as  a  service  of 
inestimable  value.  For  the  independence  of  Mr. 
Curtis  was  not  narrow,  or  obstinate,  or  ignorant,  or 
conceited.  Of  that  kind  there  is  no  lack.  It  is, 
to  a  certain  order  of  mind,  not  merely  easy  but  at 
tractive.  The  conscience  which  Mr.  Curtis  obeyed 
was  enlightened  and  open.  He  was  as  careful,  pains 
taking,  and  critical  in  seeking  to  know  the  right  as 
he  was  firm  and  determined  in  support  of  what  he 
finally  decided  was  for  him  the  right.  And  he 
was,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  see,  singularly 
respectful  of  the  same  sort  of  independence  ill 
others.  His  indignation  at  hypocrisy  and  self- 
seeking  in  public  life  was  a  flame  as  steady  as  it 
was  hot ;  but  toward  honest  difference  of  judgment 
—  honest  in  the  formation  as  in  the  expression  — 
he  was  not  merely  tolerant,  he  was  frankly  and 
sincerely  respectful.  His  great  gifts,  for  which  he 
had  or  made  great  opportunity,  made  his  career 
an  example  of  far-reaching  and  lasting  influence ; 
and  I  think  it  may  with  reason  and  justice  be  said 
that  the  influence  was,  without  qualification,  pure 
and  good. 


CHAPTEK  XXIY. 

CHANCELLOR  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY. 

THE  work  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  Uni* 
versity  of  the  State  of  New  York,  to  which  Mr. 
Curtis  had  been  elected  in  1864,  and  of  which  he 
had  thought  so  little  when  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention  that  he  had  tried  to 
have  the  Board  abolished,  was  greatly  changed 
when  in  1888  Mr.  Melville  Dewey,  of  New  York, 
became  its  secretary  and  executive  officer  with  a 
residence  at  the  state  capital.  The  many  and  vari 
ous  and  sometimes  conflicting  laws  regulating  the 
authority  and  functions  of  the  regents  were  codi 
fied,  rendered  consistent,  and  in  some  degree  modi 
fied.  The  powers,  which  for  the  greater  part  had 
been  either  misunderstood  or  neglected,  were  now 
found  to  be  considerable,  and  with  the  energetic 
management  of  Mr.  Dewey,  the  board  became  a 
living  organization,  with  possibilities  of  great 
achievement,  and  with  steady  and  rapid  progress 
in  actual  accomplishment.  The  original  purpose 
of  the  board,  when  created,  was  the  establishment 
and  conduct  of  a  university  that  should  be  the 
crown  of  the  system  of  education  in  the  State,  to 
wards  which  all  other  institutions  should  be  guided, 


318  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

and  the  standard  of  which  should  be  at  all  stages 
kept  in  mind.  To  serve  .this  end  the  regents 
were  given  the  right  of  inspection  of  all  incorpo 
rated  institutions  of  learning,  with  power  to  issue 
certificates  based  on  their  own  examination.  By 
the  firm  and  skillful  use  of  these  powers,  by  estab 
lishing  a  carefully  devised  standard  for  the  grant 
ing  of  certificates,  by  an  admirable  plan  of  graded 
and  uniform  examinations,  by  thorough,  intelligent, 
and  systematic  inspection  and  records,  the  regents' 
certificates  were  given  so  high  a  value  as  to  be  in 
dispensable.  Thus  on  the  one  hand  all  the  edu 
cators  in  the  State  were  made  to  desire  the  ap 
proval  of  the  regents,  and  on  the  other  hand 
their  active  and  beneficial  cooperation  was  secured. 
After  a  very  great  amount  of  labor,  performed  in 
an  exceedingly  short  time,  the  original  purpose  of 
the  board  was  in  the  direct  way  of  being  accom 
plished,  and  its  standard  was  recognized  and  con 
trolling.  In  addition  to  this  work  of  the  regents, 
its  influence  upon  the  professional  schools  of  law 
and  medicine  was  steadily  strengthened  ;  the  State 
Library,  which  had  previously  been  little  more 
than  a  constantly  growing  heterogeneous  mass  of 
books,  was  reduced  to  order,  and  so  classified  and 
arranged  as  to  admit  of  indefinite  expansion  and 
of  corresponding  usefulness ;  while,  by  various 
means,  its  treasures  were  made  available  over  the 
whole  State,  and  local  school  libraries  were  multi 
plied.  The  scientific  collections  of  the  State  were 
reorganized,  brought  under  one  general  control, 


CHANCELLOR   OF   THE    UNIVERSITY.         319 

made  mutually  more  useful,  and  their  development 
provided  for.  In  all  this  work  Mr.  Curtis,  who 
became  Chancellor  of  the  University  in  1890,  took 
not  only  the  greatest  interest,  but  a  large  part. 
Recognizing  the  special  knowledge  and  gifts  of 
Mr.  Dewey,  he  gave  to  him  the  heartiest  and  most 
appreciative  support;  but,  while  he  felt  the  im 
pulsion  of  "  such  a  steam  engine  "  (as,  in  one  of 
his  letters,  he  called  the  secretary),  he  was  not  in 
the  habit  of  shifting  responsibility,  and  sanctioned 
only  what  he  carefully  understood  in  principle  and 
in  all  essential  practical  features.  The  tax  of  this 
unpaid  and  inconspicuous  though  honorable  work 
upon  his  time  and  strength  was  considerable ;  but 
he  was  fortunate  to  see  its  results  so  far  achieved, 
and  its  methods  so  firmly  established  and  so  effec 
tive,  as  to  constitute  a  satisfying  reward.  The  fol 
lowing  notes  from  Mr.  Dewey  explain  the  relation 
of  Mr.  Curtis  to  their  work,  and  to  those  associated 
with  it :  — 

44  My  admiration  for  Chancellor  Curtis  grew 
with  every  occasion  of  personal  contact.  Of  his 
public  and  private  life  I  can  only  say  that  I  share 
in  the  universal  admiration.  As  chancellor  of  the 
University,  however,  he  was  known  to  me  as  to  no 
one  else.  From  the  time  he  took  office,  January 
30,  1890,  his  interest  in  our  work,  and  his  faith  in 
the  splendid  future  before  it,  grew  constantly.  At 
our  last  interview  he  emphasized  this  more  strongly 
than  ever  before,  and  was  looking  forward  to  our 
immediate  future  with  a  confidence  which,  with  all 


320  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

my  enthusiasm,  came  to  me  as  a  new  inspiration ; 
for  I  felt,  when  one  so  careful  and  conservative  as 
Mr.  Curtis  had,  after  twenty-eight  years  of  service 
as  a  regent,  looked  through  our  plans  and  our  re 
cent  development  and  felt  so  fully  satisfied  as  did 
he  as  to  our  future,  that  we,  who  were  too  much  at 
the  heart  of  the  work  to  see  it  with  the  perspec 
tive  of  one  at  a  little  distance,  ought  to  be  well  sat 
isfied  with  the  verdict. 

"  Mr.  Curtis  was  exceedingly  conscientious  in  re 
gard  to  all  his  official  duties,  but  was  entirely  free 
from  that  spirit  which  often,  in  conscientious  men 
occupying  supervisory  positions,  becomes  so  embar 
rassing  to  administrative  officers.  He  watched  all 
our  work  with  great  care,  and  criticised  or  made 
suggestions  with  absolute  freedom  ;  but  he  held 
that  those  who  were  giving  their  lives  to  this  office, 
and  night  and  day  were  in  its  atmosphere  and 
studying  its  interests,  should  be  trusted  as  far  as 
practicable  with  all  details  of  administration.  His 
course  was  a  golden  mean  between  that  of  those 
perfunctory  officials  who  sign  their  name  to  any 
kind  of  a  document  placed  before  them  by  assist 
ants  or  subordinates,  and  who  take  the  honor  with 
out  assuming  the  responsibility,  and  that  of  the 
similar  officials  at  the  other  extreme  who  so  often 
cripple  the  best  work  by  insisting  on  projecting 
their  own  personal  equation  into  the  work  of  sub 
ordinate  officers  of  a  totally  different  type  of  mind. 
He  seemed  always  to  deal  with  us  as  he  would 
like  to  be  dealt  with  under  like  circumstances ;  and 


CHANCELLOR    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY.         321 

I  can  recall  no  case,  in  these  happy  years  of  official 
association  with  him,  in  which  he  has  not  recog 
nized  to  our  entire  satisfaction  our  right  to  shape 
minor  details  as  we  found  best  in  our  daily  work, 
though  he  always  faithfully  and  intelligently  in 
sisted  on  knowing  that  the  general  principles  and 
policy  of  the  department  were  observed.  Nothing 
in  my  life  has  been  so  satisfactory  to  me  as  Mr. 
Curtis's  statement  last  January  that  Jie  was  per 
fectly  satisfied  to  have  his  name  stand  at  the  head 
of  our  publications  and  stationery,  as  responsible  to 
the  public  for  the  character  of  the  work  that  we 
were  doing  in  the  University  offices.  He  always 
seemed  to  read  between  the  lines,  and  to  under 
stand  clearly  the  spirit  in  which  our  work  was  done, 
without  making  it  necessary  to  call  his  attention  to 
our  devotion  to  duty,  or  to  the  unselfish  interest  in 
the  University  work  which  is  so  marked  a  feature 
of  nearly  every  prominent  member  of  our  staff.  I 
need  hardly  say  that  in  the  office  each  one  felt  that 
he  had  lost  a  personal  friend  ;  and  each  one  real 
ized  how  great  was  the  public  loss  when  he  was 
gone  who  in  so  unusual  a  degree  at  once  fully  dis 
charged  his  responsible  supervisory  duties,  and  yet 
left  to  the  working  officers  that  sense  of  freedom 
from  every  unnecessary  interference  without  which 
the  highest  and  best  work  is  never  done." 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

CONCLUSION. 

IN  writing  the  life  of  Mr.  Curtis  as  an  "  Ameri 
can  Man  of  Letters,"  I  have  not  forgotten  his 
claim  to  such  a  designation,  though  I  have  tried  to 
give,  as  nearly  as  possible  within  the  limits  of  the 
book,  the  materials  for  an  estimate  of  his  course  as 
a  man  of  public  affairs.  As  has  been  suggested, 
had  he  devoted  himself  to  letters  only,  or  were  he 
known  only  by  his  literary  work,  his  reputation  in 
that  kind  would  have  been  more  distinct  and  might 
be  more  lasting.  The  extent  of  his  writing  was 
great.  The  Easy  Chair  alone,  were  the  monthly 
papers  continued  for  nearly  forty  years  collected, 
would  form  some  thirty  volumes  of  the  size  of  the 
present  one.  His  addresses,  from  which  three 
large  volumes  have  been  selected,  could  easily  have 
supplied  at  least  twice  that  number.  All  his  work 
was  carefully  and  conscientiously  done,  most  of  it 
with  more  trained  critical  discrimination  than  was 
given  to  the  half  dozen  volumes  of  essays  and  travel, 
and  the  novels  that  are  commonly  accepted  as  his 
"  works."  Of  the  Easy  Chair  especially  it  must  be 
remembered  that  it  was  the  chief  product  of  Mr. 
Curtis's  pen,  was  wrought  in  the  pure  literary  spirit, 


CONCLUSION.  323 

and  was,  as  much  as  the  work  of  any  prose-writer  of 
his  time,  literature.  It  suffers  now  from  the  ephem 
eral  form  of  its  publication.  Even  the  collected 
essays  in  their  dainty  form,  and  with  the  light 
device  from  "  The  Tatler  "  with  which  the  author 
introduces  them,  "  I  shall  from  time  to  time  Re 
port  and  Consider  all  Matters  of  what  Kind  soever 
that  shall  occur  to  me,"  still  suggest  the  fleeting 
interest  of  a  monthly  appearance  and  disappearance. 
Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  Mr.  Curtis  himself  had 
little  confidence  in  their  permanent  interest,  and 
was  with  difficulty  persuaded  by  his  publishers  to 
select  those  that  were  put  into  a  volume  before 
his  death.  I  doubt,  indeed,  whether  he  would  have 
done  so,  had  he  not  had  access  to  the  collection  of 
his  friend,  Mr.  Pinkerton,  who  had  faithfully  gath 
ered  and  bound  them  all.  But  an  author  is  not 
the  most  trustworthy  critic  of  his  own  work,  and 
it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  Mr.  Curtis  was  not 
from  first  to  last  scrupulously  attentive,  in  these 
essays,  to  a  very  high  standard.  The  form  in 
which  they  were  originally  given  to  the  public,  so 
far  from  relaxing  his  sense  of  responsibility,  rather 
kept  it  active.  He  had  a  constant  and  strong  im 
pression  of  the  very  great  number  of  readers  whom 
he  reached,  and  of  the  peculiar  function  performed 
by  the  magazine  in  the  American  family.  He  knew 
that  to  thousands  of  these  families,  with  eager,  in 
terested,  curious  minds,  with  active  intellectual  im 
pulses,  but  with  scant  opportunity  or  time  for  what 
is  generally  known  as  culture,  the  magazine  was 


324  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

what  its  name  implied,  — their  store  of  literature. 
His  wide  and  long-continued  experience  in  lectur 
ing,  covering  as  it  did  all  the  free  States  and  ex 
tending  over  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
brought  him  intimate  knowledge  of  the  classes 
who  composed  the  readers  of  the  magazine.  He 
knew  their  needs,  their  mental  appetites,  their  as 
pirations  ;  he  knew  very  well  also  their  limitations, 
and  he  regarded  them  as  entitled  in  every  way  to 
his  best  work.  His  best  he  certainly  gave  them. 
There  is  something  slightly  pathetic  and  wholly 
beautiful  in  the  spirit  of  the  Easy  Chair  toward 
this  curious  clientele.  It  is  absolutely  free  from 
any  taint  or  suspicion  of  condescension.  Through 
the  hundreds  of  essays  there  is  manifest  a  simple, 
loyal,  unaffected  respect  for  the  readers.  There  is 
not  even  any  invidious  elimination  of  subjects  that 
might  easily  be  supposed  to  be  "caviare  to  the 
general."  Poetry,  art,  music,  letters,  the  higher 
politics,  take  their  place  freely  and  naturally  be 
side  social  satire  and  reminiscence  and  anecdote. 
I  have  spoken  of  the  writings  of  Mr.  Curtis  in 
"  Harper's  Weekly  "  as  a  kind  of  talking  in  which 
the  editor  had  the  air  of  speaking  face  to  face  with 
his  readers.  From  the  Easy  Chair  there  was 
talking  also,  and  the  candor,  the  high  courtesy,  the 
unfailing  self-respect  that  expresses  itself  in  re 
spect  for  others,  which  are  qualities  of  the  best 
talking,  are  manifest.  Indeed,  no  other  style  could 
so  easily  have  borne  so  varied  a  burden.  The 
writer  who  sets  out  to  produce  a  volume  on  philo- 


CONCLUSION.  .       326 

sophy,  literature,  morals,  history,  society,  or  any 
defined  phase  of  them,  finds  his  hand  subdued  to 
that  he  works  in,  and  his  writing,  though  satisfy 
ing  or  delighting  those  interested  in  his  particular 
topic,  may  easily  repel  those  who  are  not,  or  may 
weary  them,  or  leave  them  indifferent.  But  when 
a  man  of /rich  and  highly-trained  mind,  a  wide 
reader,  a  vigorous  and  alert  thinker,  with  a  vivid 
and  sustained  interest  in  a  great  range  of  differ 
ently  interesting  subjects,  permits  you  to  listen  as 
he  talks,  ripely  but  with  leisure,  sometimes  pro 
foundly  but  always  genially,  you  get  from  him 
something  of  his  best  in  whatever  direction  his 
thought  may  turn.  This  is  what  one  gets  of  Mr. 
Curtis  in  the  Easy  Chair,  and  what  has  made  that 
series  of  essays,  during  the  long  years  of  their  reg 
ular  production,  a  unique  and  charming  and  very 
important  contribution  not  only  to  American  liter 
ature,  but  to  the  development  and  formation  of 
national  opinion  and  sentiment. 

In  Mr.  Curtis  the  man  of  letters  and  the  orator 
were  blended.  The  more  important  of  the  orations 
were  written  out  and  read,  though  they  did  not 
seem  to  the  hearer  to  be  read.  Some  of  them 
were  committed  to  memory,  but  the  memorizing 
was  complete  and  the  delivery  without  hesitation^ 
so  that  in  each  case  the  personal  impression  of 
the  orator  was  the  same,  and  the  impression 
was  very  strong.  The  matter  was  prepared 
with  the  audience  constantly  in  mind,  and  no 
thing  was  neglected  which  could  arouse  or  hold 


326  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 


them ;  but  the  essential  thing  with  the  orator  was 
the  substance,  the  thought,  which  the  form  must 
serve.  Mr.  Curtis's  conception  of  the  function  of 
the  orator  can  be  gathered  from  the  range  of  his 
subjects  as  described  in  previous  pages,  and  from 
the  extracts  given.  It  is  pleasantly  illustrated  by 
the  following  notes  of  a  conversation  with  him  fur 
nished  me  by  one  of  his  associates  in  "  Harper's 
Weekly :  "  - 

"  When  I  was  in  Washington,"  said  Mr.  Curtis, 
"  I  used  to  see  much  of  Senator  Conkling,  and  we 
spent  many  evenings  together.  Upon  the  whole  I 
liked  him,  in  spite  of  the  defects  which  no  one  who 
came  into  communication  with  him  could  overlook. 
I  remember  one  talk  with  him  about  eloquence,  in 
which  he  naturally  considered  himself  a  connois 
seur.  After  we  had  discussed  it  abstractly  for  a 
while,  he  asked  me  for  an  example  of  what  I  called 
true  and  high  eloquence.  I  repeated  to  him  the 
peroration  of  Emerson's  Dartmouth  address^  which 
you  of  course  remember,  —  '  Gentlemen,  I  have 
ventured  to  offer  you  these  considerations  upon  the 
scholar's  place  and  hope,  because  I  thought  that, 
standing,  as  many  of  you  now  do,  on  the  threshold 
of  this  college,  girt  and  ready  to  go  and  assume 
tasks  public  and  private  in  your  country,  you 
would  not  be  sorry  to  be  admonished  of  those  pri 
mary  duties  of  the  intellect  whereof  you  will  seldom 
hear  from  the  lips  of  your  new  companions.  You 
will  hear  every  day  the  maxims  of  a  low  prudence. 
You  will  hear  that  the  first  duty  is  to  get  land  and 


CONCLUSION.  327 

money,  place  and  name !  "  What  is  this  Truth  you 
seek?  What  is  this  Beauty?"  men  will  ask  with 
derision.  If  nevertheless  God  have  called  any  of 
you  to  explore  truth  and  beauty,  be  bold,  be  firm, 
be  true.  When  you  shall  say,  "  As  others  do,  so 
will  I ;  I  renounce,  I  am  sorry  for  it,  my  early  vis 
ions  ;  I  must  eat  the  good  of  the  land,  and  let 
learning  and  romantic  expectations  go  until  a  more 
convenient  season  ;  "  —  then  dies  the  man  in  you  ; 
then  once  more  perish  the  buds  of  art  and  poetry 
and  science,  as  they  have  died  already  in  a  thou 
sand,  thousand  men.  The  hour  of  that  choice  is  the 
crisis  of  your  history,  and  see  that  you  hold  your 
self  fast  by  the  intellect.'  It  did  not  impress  the 
senator  much.  He  found  it  too  tame  and  creeping 
a  style,  and  I  naturally  challenged  him  in  his  turn 
for  an  example.  He  took  an  attitude,  and  in  his 
most  oratorical  manner  gave  me  an  exordium  that 
is  in  the  school  readers  by  an  orator  named 
Sprague,  I  think.  It  begins :  '  Not  many  years  ago 
where  we  now  sit  the  rank  thistle  nodded  in  the 
wind,  and  the  wild  fox  dug  his  hole  unscared.' 
The  senator's  manner,  the  evident  fervency  of  his 
belief  in  his  masterpiece,  and  the  contrast  of  it 
with  Emerson's,  all  together  were  too  much  for 
me,  and  I  broke  out  in  a  peal  of  laughter  which  I 
could  not  restrain.  I  fear  Senator  Conkling  never 
quite  forgave  me  that  laughter." 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  in  1870,  a 
quarter  of  a  century  after  Mr.  Curtis's  life  at 
Concord  and  the  club  evenings  in  Mr.  Emerson's 


328  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

library,  the  former  should  have  quoted  from  the  lat 
ter  an  example  of  what  he  regarded  as  "  true  and 
high  eloquence."  "  We  can  have  him  once  in  three 
or  four  seasons  "  is  Mr.  Curtis 's  report  of  the  lec 
turing  committee's  view  of  Emerson.  "  But  really," 
he  adds,  "  they  had  him  all  the  time  without  know 
ing  it.  He  was  the  philosopher  Proteus,  and  he 
spoke  through  all  the  more  popular  mouths."  If 
Mr.  Emerson  did  not  speak  directly  through  the 
mouth  of  Mr.  Curtis,  who  had  too  much  of  his  own 
to  say  to  permit  of  this,  his  influence  was  consider 
able.  Both  were  optimists,  both  idealists.  That 
is  to  say,  they  believed  in  the  best,  that  it  was  pos 
sible  ultimately  to  attain  it,  and  imperative  always 
to  pursue  it.  Mr.  Curtis  brought  this  belief  into 
fields  of  work  very  different  from  those  of  Mr. 
Emerson,  who  began  his  speaking  in  a  pulpit,  and 
never  quite  lost  the  sense  of  remoteness  that  the 
pulpit  impressed  upon  his  intense  nature.  But 
Mr.  Curtis,  when  he  had  fairly  found  his  work,  and 
began  to  speak,  not  merely  for  what  he  had  to  say, 
but  for  the  effect  of  what  he  should  say,  kept  an 
idealism  as  lofty  and  an  optimism  as  unflagging  as 
those  of  Mr.  Emerson,  and  in  circumstances  that 
tried  them  far  more  severely.  From  the  time  of 
the  delivery  of  the  address  at  the  Wesleyan  Uni 
versity  in  1856  to  that  of  the  Lowell  address  in 
New  York  in  March,  1892,  there  was  hardly  a  lec 
ture  or  oration  of  Mr.  Curtis  that  was  not  meant 
to  set  forth  a  high  ideal,  to  apply  it  to  some  duty 
actually  pressing,  and  to  stir  and  strengthen  the 


CONCL  USION.  329 

hearts  of  his  hearers  for  the  task  the  duty  imposed. 
With  this  dominant  tendency  it  would  have  been 
easy  for  a  man  with  his  unusual  gifts  as  a  speaker 
to  become  an  agitator,  with  the  narrowness  and  mo 
notony  that  incessant  agitation  often  brings.  From 
this  he  was  wholly  exempt,  not  only  through  the 
variety  of  his  intellectual  sympathies  and  the 
thoroughness  of  his  training,  but  by  the  constancy 
of  his  moral  impulse.  It  was  the  near  duty  that 
enlisted  him,  and  with  the  years  ever  new  duties 
approached  and  claimed  and  received  his  zealous 
service.  As  to  each  of  them  the  essential  recti 
tude  of  his  nature  imposed  upon  him  not  merely 
zealous  service,  nor  yet  merely  careful  preparation 
for  such  service,  but  deliberate  judgment  as  to  the 
duty  itself.  Zealous  he  was  in  the  noblest  and 
completest  fashion,  but  never  a  zealot,  not  blind  nor 
rash,  nor  obstinate  nor  conceited.  He  was  as  anx 
ious  to  be  right  as  he  was  determined  in  what,  with 
an  open  mind,  he  had  decided  to  be  the  right.  The 
prevailing  characteristic  of  his  oratory  became 
therefore  not  advocacy,  though  powerful  and  bril 
liant  advocacy  there  was  throughout,  but  persuasion 
with  that  foundation  of  reason  and  fairness  and 
candor  which  is  essential  to  real  and  lasting  per- 
suasion. 

In  the  immediate  impression  made  by  the  oratory 
of  Mr.  Curtis  his  personality  counted  for  much. 
Not  the  intellectual  and  haughty  grace  of  WendeD 
Phillips'  presence,  nor  the  massive  features  and  com. 
manding  figure  of  Charles  Sumner,  weighted  with 


330  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

conscious  dignity,  corresponded  more  completely 
to  the  style  of  their  utterance  than  did  Mr.  Curtis's 
peculiar  beauty  to  his.  His  charm  was  felt  the 
moment  he  rose.  His  form  was  manly,  powerfully 
built,  and  exquisitely  graceful.  His  head  was  of 
noble  cast  and  bearing;  his  features  were  well 
marked,  and  in  his  later  years  almost  rugged ;  finely 
cut,  but  of  the  type  that  is  not  blurred  or  effaced 
within  the  range  of  an  audience.  His  forehead 
was  square,  broad,  and  of  vigorous  lines  ;  his  eyes 
of  blue-gray,  large,  deep-set  under  strong  and 
slightly  shaggy  brows,  lighted  the  shadow  as  with 
a  flame,  now  gentle  and  glancing,  now  profound 
and  burning.  His  voice  was  a  most  fortunate 
organ,  deep,  musical,  yielding  without  effort  the 
happy  inflections  suited  to  the  thought,  clear  and 
bright  in  the  lighter  passages,  alternately  tender 
and  flute-like,  ringing  like  a  bugle  or  vibrating  in 
solemn  organ  tones  that  hushed  the  intense  emotion 
it  had  aroused.  His  gestures  were  very  few  and 
simple.  There  was  nothing  of  the  "  action  "  that 
the  trained  orator  of  the  old  school  studied  so  care 
fully;  no  effort  to  sustain  the  attention  of  the 
audience,  as  Everett  did,  with  a  skill  that  an  actor 
might  envy  ;  none  of  the  restless  and  irrepressible 
movement,  which  in  Beecher  responded  to  the  rush 
and  torrent  of  his  eloquence.  The  speaker  seemed 
absorbed  by  the  expression  of  his  thought,  unheed 
ing  the  eyes,  seeking  the  judgment  and  the  heart, 
of  his  auditors. 

"  I  see  now,"  wrote  Hawthorne  in  1851  to  Mr. 


CONCLUSION.  331 

Curtis  on  the  appearance  of  the  "  Nile  Notes," 
"that  you  are  forever  an  author."  And  an  au 
thor  Mr.  Curtis  was  to  the  last.  If  he  did  not 
cling  to  the  usual  forms  of  authorship,  he  was  con 
tinually  under  the  spell  of  the  literary  spirit  ;  and 
he  gave  to  all  his  productions  unstintingly  and 
almost  unconsciously  that  which  makes  books  lit 
erature,  —  absolute  and  loving  fidelity  to  the  best 
thought.  His  addresses  are  full  of  his  love  of 
scholarship  and  of  the  fruits  of  that  love,  and  his 
ideal  of  the  citizen  was  the  citizen  who  regarded 
and  performed  his  duties  as  a  scholar  should.  He 
was  not  insensible  —  on  the  contrary,  he  was 
keenly  sensitive  —  to  the  charm  of  form,  studied 
it,  delighted  in  analyzing  it,  and  strove  for  it  with 
unfailing  zest.  He  was  a  most  delicate  and  acute 
critic  of  literary  style,  and,  though  he  wrote  rela 
tively  little  on  this  subject,  there  was  nothing  more 
enjoyable  than  his  discussion  of  it  in  conversation^ 
when  his  talk  illustrated,  in  its  rhythmical  flow^/its 
vivid  and  luminous  play,  some  of  the  rarest  attri 
butes  of  style.  But  the  style  he  admired,  and  which 
he  early  formed  and  steadily  developed,  was  that 
which,  according  to  the  BufPon  tradition,  "  is  the 
man."  Literature  was  to  him  the  record  of  the 
best,  and  it  was  the  best  that  he  sought  in  it  ;  it  was 
the  best  also  that  he  tried,  modestly  but  with  affec 

i-6^ 


tionate  constancy,  to  contribute  to  it. 
as  a  source  of  enjoyment  he  did  not  underestimate, 
but  his  deepest  enjoyment  was  in  its  substance  and 
in  the  inspiration  it  breathed  into  his  life.  For  the 


332  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

mere  daintinesses  of  letters  he  had  little  taste ;  and 
the  over-refinement  which  is,  as  it  always  has  been, 
the  ambition  of  small  minds  or  the  weakness  of 
larger  minds,  aroused  in  him  only  an  amused  pity. 

His  mind,  even  in  its  earliest  and  most  fanciful 
production,  was  essentially  vigorous  and  sane,  of  a 
fibre  as  firm  as  it  was  fine.  And  this  quality  was 
developed  by  his  education,  as  in  a  sense  it  de 
termined  it.  He  was  not  a  college-bred  man,  but 
he  was  severely  trained  in  most  that  gives  college 
breeding  its  advantage.  He  was  a  careful  student 
in  many  directions,  though  an  independent  one. 
His  knowledge  of  German,  of  French,  of  Italian,  — 
which  he  rarely  betrayed  in  his  writing,  —  was  not 
only  sound  but  delicate,  and  on  his  lips  these  lan 
guages  had  the  graceful  ease  and  certainty  of  inti 
mate  acquaintance.  The  fact  is  significant  of  his 
intellectual  methods,  of  their  thoroughness  and  sys 
tem,  of  which  there  is  no  severer  test  than  mastery 
of  tongues  not  habitually  used.  His  reading  was 
wide,  as  any  reader  of  his  works  can  see,  but  he 
was  habitually  chary  of  quotations.  He  had  a 
sound  memory,  though  not  a  particularly  ready  one. 
His  mind  was  assimilative,  and  seemed  more  and 
more  so  as  time  passed.  It  would  not  be  difficult 
to  trace  in  literature  the  wide  and  varied  springs  of 
his  thought  and  style,  but  they  would  appear  as 
elements  blended  and  incorporated  and  made  his 
own. 

His  place  in  American  scholarship  was  formally 
and  amply  recognized  by  the  degrees  conferred 


CONCLUSION.  333 

upon  him,  which,  seeing  that  he  was  not  a  college 
graduate,  and  was  enrolled  in  none  of  the  well- 
defined  professions,  and  had  no  specialty  in  letters, 
were  remarkable  in  number  and  character.  They 
were  as  follows :  Hon.  A.  M.,  Brown,  1854,  Madi 
son,  1861,  Rochester,  1862 ;  LL.  D.,  Madison,  1864, 
Harvard,  1881,  Brown,  1882;  L.  H.  D.,  Colum 
bia,  1887.  But  with  this  quadruple  right  to  the 
highest  official  literary  rank,  he  remained  always, 
save  in  the  publications  of  the  University  of  the 
State  of  New  York  after  he  became  its  chancellor, 
the  plain  editor  and  citizen. 

Mr.  Curtis  was  intimately  connected  with  the 
study  and  development  of  art  in  New  York.  He 
began  his  newspaper  work  by  reviews  of  the  exhi 
bitions,  and,  though  these  do  not  now  rank  high  as 
criticism,  they  were  sound  and  helpful  in  their  day, 
and  based  on  what  was  then  a  very  unusual  degree 
of  observation  and  knowledge.  He  always  counted 
many  artists  among  his  friends,  and  of  the  truest 
as  artists  and  as  friends.  He  was  one  of  the  earli 
est  members  of  the  Century  Association,  and  used 
playfully  to  say  that  the  only  office  he  really  as 
pired  to  was  that  of  president  of  the  Century.  In 
all  gatherings  of  artists  and  lovers  of  art  he  was 
welcome  and  honored.  He  was  for  many  years  a 
trustee  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  and  a 
trustee  in  fact  as  well  as  name.  His  taste  in  art 
was  refined  and  catholic,  not  coldly  critical ;  and  if 
he  was  not,  and  did  not  care  to  be,  in  the  strict 
sense,  a  connoisseur,  he  was  in  the  best  sense,  as 


334  GEORGE    WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

used  in  the  charter  of  his  beloved  Century,  an  ama 
teur. 

Mr.  Curtis  was  in  his  religious  sentiments  what, 
for  lack  of  a  more  definite  term,  is  called  a  Unita 
rian.  For  many  years  it  was  his  habit,  when  the 
Unitarian  church  on  Staten  Island  was  without  a 
pastor,  to  read  of  a  Sunday,  from  the  pulpit,  a  ser 
mon  to  the  congregation.  He  was  the  vice-presi 
dent  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  ;  he 
was,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  President  of  the  Uni 
tarian  National  Conference,  and  he  not  infrequently 
spoke,  on  questions  involving  the  to  him  religious 
duty  of  the  citizen,  in  the  church  of  his  friend,  the 
Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick,  of  Brooklyn.  It  is  need 
less  to  say  that  he  was  not  a  sectarian,  and  that 
there  was  no  taint  in  his  mind  of  that  narrowness 
and  bigotry  which  are  the  peril  of  a  belief  reject 
ing  much  of  what  is  most  generally  accepted.  His 
creed  remained  that  expressed  in  the  simple  state 
ment  written  to  his  brother  in  early  manhood,  and 
quoted  in  the  first  chapter :  "  I  believe  in  God,  who 
is  love,  that  all  men  are  brothers,  and  that  the  only 
essential  duty  of  every  man  is  to  be  honest,  by 
which  I  understand  his  absolute  following  of  his 
conscience  when  duly  enlightened.  I  do  not  be 
lieve  that  God  is  anxious  that  men  should  believe 
this  or  that  theory  of  the  Godhead,  or  of  the  divine 
government,  but  that  they  should  live  purely,  justly, 
and  lovingly." 

A  biography  of  Mr.  Curtis,  though  it  may  con 
vey  to  its  readers  some  impression  of  what  he  did, 


CONCL  USION.  335 

and  of  the  influence  of  his  work  and  of  his  life, 
must  necessarily  fail  to  give  any  adequate  impres 
sion  of  h'is  personality  as  it  was  known  to  those 
who  had  the  privilege  of  his  intimacy,  -  -  those  to 
whom  love  or  friendship  unlocked  the  treasures  of 
his  delightful  nature.  The  picture  which,  to  use 
a  phrase  frequently  on  his  pen,  "  will  be  forever  in 
the  memory "  of  his  friends,  was  not  that  of  the 
orator,  or  of  the  leader  in  great  causes,  but  that 
of  the  companion  and  friend. 

His  tranquil  and  lovely  home  on  Staten  Island 
and  the  home  in  Ashfield  among  the  remote  hills 
of  northern  Massachusetts,  bore  to  the  busy  and 
struggling  city  something  of  the  relation  that  their 
master  in  his  home  bore  to  the  man  as  he  was 
known  in  the  world  of  affairs  in  which  he  took  so 
brave  and  strong  a  part.  He  was  of  a  singularly 
simple  and  consistent  nature.  He  had  not,  as 
some  have,  a  different  character  at  home  and 
abroad,  but  rather  a  different  manifestation  of  it. 
His  talk  was,  on  the  whole,  the  best  I  have  ever 
known.  It  was  at  once  free  and  measured.  He  had 
great  skill  as  a  narrator,  a  natural  skill,  the  fruit 
of  keen  and  sympathetic  observation  and  of  hearty 
enjoyment  of  re-presentation.  He  had  wit  at  times 
caustic,  but  never  cruel  or  unfair  or  conceited,  and 
always  bright  in  itself  and  illuminating.  He  had 
humor  of  a  generous  and  suave  sort ;  and  he  was 
capable,  even  in  his  latest  years,  of  much  of  that 
play  with  the  topic  or  the  feeling  of  the  moment 
which  we  recognize  as  "fun,"  though  we  cannot  de« 


336  GEORGE    WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

fine  it,  and  which  was  almost  riotous  in  his  early 
letters.  His  love  of  music  was  constant,  and,  as  a 
close  friend  writes,  "his  touch  on  the  piano,  his 
voice  in  singing,  had  a  peculiar  quality  of  sweet 
ness."  He  smilingly  adopted  as  to  Wagner  the 
remark  he  often  quoted  as  to  Emerson,  of  the 
Bostonian  who  "  did  not  understand,"  but  whose 
"  daughter  did ;  "  and  he  took  a  half -sportive  delight 
in  dwelling  on  the  memory  of  the  great  singers  of 
the  past,  of  whom  Jenny  Lind  was  to  him  the  su 
preme  type ;  but  his  tribute  to  Theodore  Thomas, 
at  the  farewell  banquet  to  that  apostle  of  Wagner, 
was  a  very  noble  tribute  to  the  master  as  well.  He 
had  a  gift  in  the  nature  of  genius  for  hospitality 
and  for  friendship ;  and  it  was  a  curious  evidence 
of  the  richness  and  capacity  of  his  nature  that, 
amid  strenuous  duties  and  labors  that  were  crowd 
ing,  exacting,  and  must  have  been  often  exhausting, 
he  was  able,  not  to  find,  but  to  make  time  for  such 
generous  social  intercourse.  He  had  the  precious 
advantage  of  demanding  and  of  giving  in  such  in 
tercourse  only  the  substance  and  reality ;  he  did 
not  despise,  he  simply  ignored,  the  artificial  require 
ments.  He  was  at  home  in  all  circles,  because  in 
all  he  was  unaffectedly  true  to  a  nature  constantly 
sincere  and  kind  and  simple,  but  a  nature  also 
opulent  and  varied,  sensitive,  sympathetic.  Hi/  en 
joyment  of  society,  as  of  the  outdoor  world  of  art, 
of  music,  and  of  books,  was  a  sort  of  talent  which 
developed  to  the  end,  and  did  not  wither  or  fail, 
and  which  he  delighted  to  cultivate.  I  think  one 


CONCLUSION.  .     337 

essential  condition  of  it  was  his  extraordinary  un 
selfishness.  The  irritation  that  is  bred  of  vanity, 
jealousy,  envy,  the  weariness  and  distrust  that  are 
the  revulsion  from  the  f everishness  of  unworthy  de 
sires,  seemed  impossible  to  him.  He  invited  and 
won  the  best,  because  naturally  and  without  con 
straint  he  offered  the  best.  It  was  due  to  this 
quality  of  his  nature  that  it  was  possible  to  say  of 
him,  with  reason  and  without  exaggeration,  that 
he  was  "the  man  of  all  Americans,  perhaps  the 
man  in  all  the  world,  who  was  most  widely  held  in 
affectionate  regard,  the  most  lovable  and  the  most 
loved  of  all."  The  expressions  of  this  sentiment 
after  his  death,  from  all  parts  of  the  land,  from 
men  of  all  parties  and  all  classes,  overbore  even 
the  expressions  of  sorrow.  "  Our  tears  must  fall," 
said  his  friend,  Mr.  Norton,  to  those  gathered  in 
the  little  church  at  Ashfield,  "  that  we  are  to  see 
him  no  more ;  but  our  hearts  must  be  glad  that  his 
memory  belongs  to  us  forever,  is  part  of  ourselves, 
and  will  be  to  us  a  perpetual  help  and  joy."  And 
in  the  sorrowful  first  meeting  of  the  executive  com 
mittee  of  the  New  York  Civil  Service  Reform 
Association,  Archdeacon  Mackay-Smith  closed  a 
simple  review  of  the  character  and  service  of  the 
dead  chief :  "  We  must  believe  that  he  who  did  this 
work  and  lived  this  life  was  very  near  to  God." 

His  last  public  utterance  was  in  March,  1892, 
when  he  repeated  in  New  York  the  Brooklyn  ad 
dress  on-  Lowell.  Early  in  June  he  was  taken 
seriously  ill,  and  after  long  and  acute  suffering,  on 


338  GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

the  last  day  of  the  summer,  in  the  quiet  home  on 
Staten  Island,  he  died.  A  few  days  before  the 
end,  a  younger  brother  on  parting  asked  if  there 
was  anything  he  could  do  for  him.  "  Nothing," 
was  the  answer,  "but  to  continue  to  love  me." 
The  words  seem  his  last  message  to  those  who  knew 
him,  and  to  the  multitude  of  those  who  knew  only 
his  work.  It  has  been  constantly  in  my  mind. 

"  What  is  to  be  written,"  said  a  life-long  friend 
of  his  when  his  death  brought  under  discussion 
the  preparation  of  a  biography,  "  is  the  story  of  a 
character."  It  is  the  sense  of  his  character  that 
finally  remains  most  distinctly,  most  firmly,  with 
the  most  vital  influence,  from  the  contemplation  of 
his  life.  Charm  of  many  sorts  he  had,  but  the 
supreme  and  pervading  one  was  the  completeness 
with  which  he  could  render  the  charm  of  virtue, 
and  the  spontaneous  and  constant  proof  he  gave 
that  he  was  himself  possessed  by  it.  I  have  al 
luded  many  times  to  this  in  the  course  of  this  vol 
ume,  because  it  was  manifested  in  so  many  phases. 
In  public  questions,  from  the  early  days  when  in 
his  boyish  letters  he  anticipated  Charles  Sumner's 
challenge  to  Webster  to  assume  that  leadership  of 
the  cause  of  the  right  which  alone  could  give  his 
genius  its  full  scope,  to  the  last  noble  and  mournful 
tribute  to  Lowell  as  a  leader  of  the  conscience  as 
well  as  the  intellect  of  the  nation ;  in  his  brief  but 
splendid  campaign  against  slavery ;  in  the  trying 
period  of  the  Civil  War  ;  in  his  long  and  patient 
efforts  first  to  keep  his  party  true  to  its  best  and 


CONCL  USION.  339 

then  to  reclaim  it ;  in  the  years  of  advocacy  of  re 
form  in  the  civil  service  as  the  cause  of  honest 
and  pure  public  life ;  in  the  unselfish  and  fruitful 
championship  of  political  independence  to  which  so 
much  of  his  closing  years  was  given,  —  in  all  these 
shone  the  high  moral  purpose  of  the  man.  In  his 
literary  work  —  after  the  books  of  travel  which 
were  his  sole  venture  in  a  realm  where  imagina 
tion  was  sovereign  —  under  a  thousand  lights,  in 
greatly  varying  forms,  and  associated  with  peculiar 
beauty  of  fancy,  of  construction  and  style,  there 
was  the  same  moral  purpose.  His  rare  gifts  he 
brought,  a  rich  and  constant  tribute,  and  laid  them 
at  the  feet  of  the  conscience  which  was  to  him  the 
divinely  appointed  saviour  of  the  world. 


INDEX. 


ADDRESSES,  Wesleyan  University, 
1856,  111  ;  Philadelphia,  "  Present 
Aspect  of  the  Slavery  Question," 
126 ;  Chicago  Convention,  18CO,  134 ; 
on  Civil  Service  Reform,  212;  on 
Simmer,  236;  at  Concord,  239; 
Chamber  of  Commerce  banquet, 
1876,  247;  at  Saratoga,  262;  on 
Bryant,  265;  as  president  of  the 
National  Civil  Service  Reform 
League,  294-307  ;  on  Lowell,  309. 

Alcott,  at  Brook  Farm.  23  ;  at  Concord, 
31. 

Briggs,  Charles  F.,  editor  of  Putnam's 

Magazine,  82. 
Brook  Farm,  R.  W.  Emerson  on,  19  ; 

C.  A.  Dana,  22  ;  influence  on  Curtis, 

26 ;  sketch  by  Curtis,  27. 
Bryant,  W.  C.,  work  before  1851,  55; 

oration  on,  265. 
Bun-ill,  Elizabeth  (mother  of  G.  W. 

Curtis,  b.  1798,  d.  1826),  6. 
Burrill  genealogy,  2. 
Burrill,    James,    Jr.,    Chief    Justice 

of    Rhode    Island,    United    States 

Senator,  6. 

Civil  Service  Reform,  spoils  system  in 
Senate,  199  ;  first  commission,  216  ; 
abandonment  by  President  Grant, 
239-244;  National  League  formed, 
273  ;  law  of  1883,  275-278. 

Curtis,  Ephraim,  b.  1642, 2  ;  Indian  ex 
pedition,  2 ;  first  settler  of  Worces 
ter,  4. 

Curtis  genealogy,  2,  note. 

Curtis,  George  (father  of  G.  W.,  b. 
1796,  d.  1856),  6 ;  married  Elizabeth 
Burrill,  6 ;  second  marriage,  6 ; 
character,  6;  president  Bank  of 
Commerce,  18;  death  (1856),  105. 

Curtis,  George  William,  b.  Feb.  24, 
1824,  6  ;  religious  creed,  7  ;  school 
ing,  8 ;  life  in  Providence,  8 ;  re 
moval  to  New  York,  18 ;  work  in 
counting  room,  19  ;  boarder  at  Brook 
Farm,  19;  studies  there,  20;  life 
there,  20 ;  described  by  a  resident, 
21 ;  Alcott's  address,  23  ;  Webster 
at  Bunker  Hill,  24  ;  letter  to  father, 
24,  25 ;  sketch  of  Brook  Farm,  27  ; 


returns  to  New  York,  29 ;  studies,  29 ; 
life  at  Concord,  30 ;  club,  31  ;  letter 
on  slavery,  1844, 32  ;  sails  for  Europe, 
1846,  39 ;  newspaper  letters,  40 ; 
diary,  40-50 ;  Genoa,  41 ;  Florence, 
42  ;  Rome,  44  ;  the  Pope,  45  ;  return 
from  Europe,  1850, 58;  "NileNotes," 
58  ;  letter  on,  62 ;  estimate  of,  65-73  ; 
lectures,  74 ;  on  Tribune,  74;  "Lotus- 
Eating,"  75;  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
letter  on,  76  ;  connection  with  Har 
per  &  Bros.,  77;  "The  Lounger," 
78  ;  editor  Putnam's  Magazine,  78  ; 
verses,  79  ;  "  Life  of  Mehemet  Ali," 
81 ;  reminiscences  by  Parke  Godwin, 


1  Prue  and  I,"  Godwin  on,  96 ;  be 
trothal,  102 ;  marriage  with  Anna 
Shaw,  102 ;  "Easy  Chair,"  1854, 104 ; 
death  of  his  father,  letter  on,  105 ; 
business  losses,  106  ;  debts  assumed, 
107  ;  campaign  of  1856, 109  ;  address 
at  Wesleyan  University,  Middle- 
town,  Conn.,  Ill  ;  canvass  of  Penn 
sylvania,  116 ;  N.  P.  Willis'  first  vote, 
116;  the  home  on  Staten  Island, 
birth  of  his  son,  118 ;  work  on  Har 
per's  Weekly,  120 ;  "  Trumps,"  1859, 
121 ;  mobbed  in  Philadelphia,  126  ; 
chairman  of  Republican  County 
Committee,  130 ;  discussion  of  can 
didates  for  I860,  130 ;  delegate  to 
Republican  National  Convention, 
1860,  132;  effective  speech,  134; 
"  Disunion,  and  God  for  the  Right  " 
(1860),  139;  defense  of  Seward 
(1861),  140;  birth  of  a  daughter 
(1861),  144;  New  York  "taken," 
145  ;  events  of  1861  and  1862,  in  let 
ters  to  Norton,  148-160;  Congres 
sional  Convention,  159 ;  death  of  his 
brother,  Col.  Joseph  B.  Curtis,  1862, 
160  ;  draft  riots,  1863,  164 ;  editor 
of  Harper's  Weekly,  169 ;  estimate 
of  work  and  methods,  170-177  ;  visit 
to  Lincoln,  178  ;  Republican  National 
Convention  of  1864,  178 ;  degree  of 
LL.  D.,  Madison  University,  1864, 
181  ;  Burnside,  182  ;  nominated  to 
Congress,  1864,  183  ;  defeated,  184 ; 


342 


INDEX. 


reelection  of  Lincoln,  184  ;  war  lec 
tures,  185  ;  death  of  Lincoln,  188 ; 
a  new  paper  proposed,  —  his  views, 
189  ;  Lowell's  Commemoration  Ode, 
192  ;  delegate  to  Constitutional  Con 
vention,  192 ;  Senatorship,  193 ; 
course  in  convention,  195 ;  women, 
suffrage  for,  196 ;  impeachment  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  198  ;  spoils  system 
in  Senate,  199  ;  presidential  elector, 
1868,  202  ;  offered  editorship  of  New 
York  Times,  203 ;  independent  jour 
nalism,  203;  nominated  for  secre 
tary  of  state  and  declined,  18G9,  204 ; 
the  nomination  for  governor,  207 ; 
lectures  onCivilService  Reform, 212; 
appointment  to  Civil  Service  Com 
mission,  1S71,  216 ;  report,  217-227  ; 
Liberal  Republican  movement,  1872, 
229;  resignation  from  commission, 
232  ;  sickness,  233  ;  "  bolting,"  234 ; 
the  reaction,  235 ;  oration  on  Sum- 
ner,  236 ;  oration  at  Concord,  239 ; 
Lowell's  ode,  244 ;  campaign  of  1876, 
245;  the  disputed  election,  speech 
at  Chamber  of  Commerce  banquet, 
247;  offered  choice  of  chief  mis 
sions,  253 ;  Lowell,  minister  to 
Spain,  255  ;  attack  by  Roscoe  Conk- 
ling,  257  ;  conception  of  political  in 
dependence,  258;  oration  at  Sara 
toga,  262  ;  oration  on  Bryant,  265  ; 
offer  of  German  mission,  268  ;  Inde- 
pendentRepublicanmoveinent,  1879, 
268  ;  election  of  Garfield,  271 ;  assas 
sination,  273  ;  Civil  Service  Reform 
League,  273 ;  the  Folger  campaign, 
1882, 275 ;  resignation  from  Harper's 
Weekly  and  its  withdrawal,  274; 
Civil  Service  Reform  law,  276 ;  "  The 
Elaine  Campaign,"  the  situation, 
279  ;  action  of  Independent  Repub 
licans,  285;  delegate  to  National 
Convention,  285;  Elaine's  nomina 
tion,  287 ;  support  of  Cleveland, 
288  ;  letter  on,  289 ;  good  faith,  let 
ter  on,  290  ;  abuse  received,  292  ;  ad 
dresses  and  labors  as  president  of  the 
Reform  League,  294-307  ;  canvass  of 
1888,  308;  letter,  on,  309;  letters 
of  Motley,  311 ;  address  on  Lowell, 
312  ;  Chancellor  of  the  University 
of  New  York,  317-321 ;  ideal  of  elo 
quence,  326  ;  Curtis  as  orator,  329  ; 
as  writer,  330 ;  honorary  degrees, 
333 ;  the  Century  Club,  333  ;  reli 
gion,  334 ;  death,  337. 

Curtis,  Henry,  sailed  from  London, 
1635,  1 ;  settled  at  Watertown, 
Mass.,  1636,  2,  note;  children,  2, 
note. 

Curtis,  James  Burrill,  b.  1822,  6 ; 
"Our  Cousin  the  Curate,"  12;  de 
scribed,  22. 


Curtis,  John  (b.  1707),  5 ;  loyalist,  5; 

reconciliation,  6. 
Curtis,  Joseph  B.,  Col.,  160,  note. 

Degrees:  Hon.  A.  M.,  Brown,  1854, 
Madison,  1864,  Rochester,  1862; 
LL.  D.,  Madison  University,  1864, 
Harvard,  1881,  Brown,  1882 ; 
L.  H.  D.,  Columbia,  1887,  333. 

"  Egyptian  Serenade  "  (poem),  80. 
Emerson,  R.  W. ,  15  ;  on  Brook  Farm, 
19. 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  letter  on,  76. 

Godwin,  Parke,  Putnam's  Magazine, 
82  ;  reminiscences  of  Curtis,  82  ;  on 
"  Potiphar  Papers,"  91. 

Harper  &  Bros.,  Curtie's  connection 

with,  77. 

Harper's  Weekly,  Curtis's  contribu 
tions  to,  78  ;    "  The  Lounger,"  78  ; 
I      circulation,   120;   resignation  from 
!      and  its  withdrawal,  274. 
:  Hawthorne,  at  Concord  Club,  31 ;  work 

before  1851,  54.     . 
[  Howadji  in  Syria,  1852,  65. 
Howadji,  Nile  Notes  of,  1851,  59  ;  no 
tices  of,  GO  ;  censured,  61 ;  letter  on, 
62. 

Irving,  Washington,  53. 

Lectures,  first,  74  ;  War,  185  ;  Civil 
Service  Rsform,  212;  "The  Public 
Duty  of  fc.tiiratpd  Men,"  1877,  258. 

Literary  field  in  1851,  52. 

"  Lotus-Ep.tinr,"  18.r>2,  75, 

"  Lounger,"  The,  78. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  in  1851,  56  ;  on  "  Pruo 
and  I "  and  "  Potiphar  Papers,"  122; 
letters  to,  192,  209-211,  244,  255; 
address  on,  312. 

"Nile  Notes  of  a  Howadji,"  1851, 
59. 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  letters  to,  59, 
106,  116,  118-120,  136-138,  144,  145, 
146,  148,  162,  164-167,  177-182,  184, 
187,  189,  193,  194,  204,  207,  '230,  231, 
233,  235,  245,  253,  257,  267,  275. 

"  Potiphar  Papers,"  Parke  Godwin  on, 

91 ;  estimate  of,  92-96. 
"Prue    and  I,"    Parke    Godwin  on, 

96. 
Putnam's  Magazine,  Curtis  editor  of, 

78 ;  contributors  to,  81,  note ;  Charle» 

F.  Briggs,  editor  of,  82  ;  Paike  God 

win,  editor  of,  82. 

"Reaper,  "The  (poem),  79. 


INDEX. 
Slavery,  letter  on,  1844,  32 ;  letter  on    Tariff,  letter  on,  1844,  35. 


343 


Fugitive  Slave  Law,  76 ;  campaign  of 
1856,  109;  first  address,  Wesleyan 
University,  Middletown,  Conn.,  Ill; 
canvass  of  Pennsylvania,  116  ;  the 
Philadelphia  mob,  126;  emancipa 
tion  proclamation,  158. 

Spoils  system  in  United  States  Senate, 
199. 

Suffrage  for  women,  196. 


Thackeray,  estimate  of,  78. 

Thoreau  at  Concord,  31. 

Tribune,  The  New  York,  Curtis'swork 

on, 74  ;  course  changed,  148. 
"Trumps,"  1859,  121. 

Webster,  Daniel,  at  Bunker  Hill,  24. 

Winthrop,   Theodore,    marches   with 

the  7th  regiment,  145  ;  death,  146. 


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